Medications (Adderall, Ritalin etc.) and Japanese Customs

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Later this month I'll be finally realising my dream of going to Japan. I was planning on going with last year's Uni Study Tour but that one was cancelled because of the Tsunami.

I'm really looking forward to it, but it seems I might have problems taking my medication through customs. Since my diagnosis (Asperger's + ADD) I've been taking Ritalin (20g modified release). I know there are many here who disapprove of perscribing this for AS, but in my case I've found it really helps, especially when studying and on very social-activity intense days. I'm afraid that without it, I'll have a hard time coping with the fast pacing of a 10 day study tour across half Japan with 24 other students.

It seems that the last few years, legislation surrounding Ritalin has become very strict because of doctor's overperscribing it. Apparently you can only get it in Japan for narcolepsy. Other medications like Adderall (which I don't take but I know others do) are completely illegal because of the amphetamines.

So I already figured out it's near to impossible to get Ritalin in Japan, but does anyone here have experience with taking it through customs with a perscription?

Have your doc write a "For whom it may concern" letter.
I have the same concerns, as I travel a lot for work.
Japan wouldn't worry me so much, but I have to go to many countries with death penalties for drugs, and I'm a smidge worried.
My prescribing doctor wrote a letter which he claims has fixed customs issues for other patients.
I have yet to find out, but I'm going nowhere without the additional letter, translated to several languages.

Also make sure you keep them in the original packaging, with any accompanying pamphlets.

Jason

If I was you I would ask the Japanese state (ask an embassy) what the legal status of ritalin is there, and what you should do.

You can start your search here

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/he ... ls/01.html

and

http://www.nco.go.jp/shinsei5.html

I suspect that if it is a controlled drug (like a class A, B or C drug under the UK misuse of drugs act) then it will be harder to import your meds legally.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.