The restrictions usually apply to opiates, such as codeine, but other seemingly innocuous items can also catch out the unwary traveller. In Japan, for instance, the humble Vicks Inhaler is illegal, as are Actifed and Sudafed, another pair of common cold remedies.
According to Dr Richard Dawood, director of the Fleet Street Health Clinic in London, one or two travellers are caught out by these discrepancies every year, but although the numbers are small, the consequences can be severe.
Earlier this year, British sports osteopath Tracy Wilkinson spent eight weeks in jail in Dubai after her blood was found to contain traces of codeine. UK doctors regularly prescribe the drug for moderate to severe pain caused by conditions such as back trouble.
In Dubai, even arriving with codeine in one’s bloodstream is illegal unless it has been prescribed by a doctor with permission from the emirate’s ministry of health. Wilkinson had her blood tested after being arrested for passport irregularities. The codeine traces could have cost her a four-year jail sentence.
The main problem for travellers is that the guidance to which substances are banned in which countries is far from clear. Attempts to find definitive information lead to Kafkaesque buck-passing and dead ends. The Foreign Office website www.fco.gov.uk urges travellers to consult the London embassy of the country concerned but this is easier said than done.
Oman, for example, has similar restrictions to Dubai but a call to its medical section elicited a recorded message saying the mailbox was full and could not accept any messages. As an alternative, The Times consulted the website of the Omani embassy but it turned out to be written entirely in Arabic.
On calling the Foreign Office to see if it could offer more specific guidance, a spokeswoman suggested looking up the Department of Health website. However, the relevant page on the site hot-links readers to the Home Office website, which, as a Home Office spokesman admitted, has no information on the subject at all.
The campaign organisation Fair Trials Abroad has described the lack of transparent information concerning illegal drugs as “accidents waiting to happen”. Given the paucity of information, The Times cannot offer an authoritative list but, as a scratch guide, the following countries are potentially problematic:
● United Arab Emirates – Some prescription and over-the-counter medicines are illegal, particularly opiates.
● Oman – Similar to UAE.
● Japan – banned substances include stimulants (such as Vicks Inhalers and Sudafed) and psychotropic substances (excluding those designated by an ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare).
● Singapore – Not all prescription drugs available in the UK are available in Singapore. Some over-the-counter medication in the UK requires a prescription in Singapore, e.g. Ibuprofen.
