Uh oh....mailing prescription?

[Melaine]

MIL lives in China and gets her prescriptions filled here in the states. She just emailed me and asked me to pick up some meds and mail them to a friend who will send them or take them to her. Something clicked in my brain and I remember them asking me at the usps if I was mailing meds. Is this ok to do or is it illegal? She needs these and I feel like I can't say no but I don't want to break the law either.

[MaiseyDog]

Shipping medications through the mail has more to do with the receiving countries laws than the shipping country. In the US, you can ship in a 30 day supply for personal use, but larger quantities may be prohibited (all meds shipped in can be held until appropriate documentation that you have a legitament prescription are produced). As an example, Germany on the other hand, prohibits any medications being shipped in (at least the last time I had to look it up). I do not know what the laws are in china concerning this. Generally, any medication that is illegal in the receiving country is prohibited from being shipped in.

Now, does any of this stop people from actually doing anything... not usually, i know of people that ship meds internationally that just don't declare the medication on the customs forms and run the risk of having the medication confiscated if found. I am unaware of any individual being prosecuted for mailing another individual a small amount of medications. Typically, the government is going after mail order pharmacies in these situations.

[dhano923]

When my mom was visiting her family in Singapore 3 years ago, she ended up extending her stay and was running low on her medications. She asked me to call her doctor and request a 60 day supply for me to pick up and mail her. I called US Customs to make sure I could do that, and they said it should be fine, as my mom was a tourist. They recommended I include copies of the written prescription in the package in case Singapore Customs had any issues. I FedExed the package to her and they inspected it, but delivered it less 1 pill from each bottle (which they probably removed to test).

[Melaine]

Thanks guys. It was hard finding info on this, but I am just going to ship it in a pre-paid box, hopefully won't be any trouble.