im sorry if this is offtopic.

I will be traveling for christmas and i dont have a perscription for the benzo's i need. How does airport security deal with unperscribed meds, can i get in to any troble, do they ask if you have a perscription?

I've gone through a lot of airports since 9/11, had security go through my carry-ons,
the pat-downs, etc.(both random checks & because I stupidly forgot & left change in my
pocket.) I always carry the meds I'll need (scheduled, ordinary scrips, vitamins, the works)
in one of those daily-dose divided containers in a carry-on & never once have they even looked at that.
I will say I always make a point of looking and acting "nice", too. Just my experience. I know folks
say it's safer to have a prescription bottle, guess I'm lazy, but I don't plan to start lugging a bunch
of bottles around, unless it's for a trip out of the country.

Between my husband and I, we must have 20+ prescriptions for various things (not all daily, but necessary if traveling). I just throw all the prescription bottles in a big plastic ziploc bag - the TSA has so much to do that they won't even check it. They probably think we're just two sick people I've also traveled with assorted pills in a big bottle, no problem there either. TSA or no TSA, they'll have to pry my pills from my cold dead fingers!!

What do you think is better, if i check them with my baggge or if i carry them on?

NEVER check your meds in your luggage! I don't mean to yell (oh, yes I do, never mind!). NEVER check them, always carry them with you!! There have been horror stories about airline employees and TSA people swiping meds out of people's luggage!!!

I'll second that. NEVER check meds that are prescription. Even if they're just blood pressure meds or whatever, someone may think they're valuable and take them. OTC stuff shouldn't be a problem, I mean if someone steals your motrin, whoopdedoo.

I travel a lot too and have had my suitcase noticably rifled through -- and this was after I watched security pass them through. So it wasn't a security check that moved the contents of the bag.

I travel with my regular prescription bottles, though I have put just a few of one thing into another bottle I'm carrying and haven't had a problem, but I guess it's possible. TSA does have a LOT more to deal with these days other than opening your script bottles, so it's pretty unlikely you'd have a problem.

One more reason you always want to carry on your meds is in the case of lost luggage. I've always had mine found when it's been lost, but sometimes it's never found or it may take days. If you have meds you take nearly every day, you certainly don't want them in lost luggage.

Good luck,
Missthang

Those posts from the 'old hands' are so right! I should have emphasized that. Never put
anything you can't live w/o (or easily replace) in checked. I had valuables stolen right
out of my suitcase on a non-stop. This was before the TSA took over, turned out there were
Huge organized theft rings at Both ends of my trip, which didn't get found out till months
later. So just put your meds in any bag that is Always with you and you should be fine.
Also, if you're carrying gifts, don't wrap them. I had a minor hassle with a music-box snowglobe.
(Which must have looked really weird in the x-ray, to be fair.) Have a good trip!

Just thought of something else. If it's just benzos you're worried about, I wouldn't!
I bet there are more benzos on an airplane than anyplace else! All those folks in the
airport bars? Those are the people who don't have valium. Seriously, for a while there
I couldn't get on a flight w/o Xanax. (Lot safer & cheaper than those $6 drinks, too).
Fortunately, that's one problem of mine that's gotten better. Anyway, if you've got any
old prescription bottle to carry your pills in, that might make you feel less worried, too.

Just mixum in with some other perscription bottle. I have traveled a good deal and they never check meds. I always take mine carry on.

Always carry on your prescriptions. Lost Luggage happens. Take what you need and a little extra in the original bottles. Leave the extra at home and put them back in when you get there. It seems like nothing would be worse than a whole bottle of lost or stolen medication. jmho pinque

Hi, I was just wandering around here and saw your post and thought of something: If you are traveling, and you stay at a Motel...remember to always KEEP YOUR MEDS WITH YOU. Hotels/Motels don't do background checks on Housekeepers as the pay is so low and they are hard to find. Therefore, you know as much about the person cleaning your room as the Hotel?Motel does. I would never stay at a motel that did not use KEY CARDS either (you know the plastic cards that look like a credit card). Those cards when they are punched in override any other card that has ever been made for that room, threfore the only person who would have access to your room besides you would be an employee. I know we had a certain housekeeper at our motel a few years back and oxycontin was missing from his room. We don't know for sure but once that housekeeper was let go, we never had another incident. Just thought I would add my two cents!!!

Our vacations consist of running around like crazy people, visiting amusement parks and riding roller coasters. It's impossible to carry all our important med bottles with us. I take all the important stuff, put it in my carry on - lock it - then put the carry on into my suitcase and lock that also. I then put the whole shebang in the hotel closet. No way a housekeeper is going to steal a suitcase (well, I guess it's possible, but highly improbable).

Thanks for the advice!

First of all pinque is right. I worked for an airline, and medication checking is one of the biggest NO-NO's!! I worked lost luggage for years(in addition to other duties).

Also, here in WA state, the TSA in both Spokane and Seattle have fired workers for taking meds from carry-on baggage once it cleared the x-ray machine. Not sure how they did it, but its been done. TSA supervisors set them up in both cities, and found they had taken oxycontin, and other pain killers.
I watch my bag carefully, and if I end up a selectee, I announce that I have medication. I have only been a selectee once, so it I don't know how much it ended up helping. My meds were all there.

Heck, this is one more thing we need to worry about.

Otherwise, you should have no worries.

krash

Just don't pack them in your suitcase, and bring the RX bottles. You won't have any trouble.