Can I bring NON prescription drugs to Singapore?

[ecureilx]

You'll need to see a doctor--and the rules for prescribing such meds have very recently gotten a bit more difficult. All docs must input the NRIC/name and the dosage into a nation wide database. To stop patients from doctor hopping and getting more than they realistically need.

My neighborhood doc just put a new sign up saying he no longer carries the sleeping pills in his clinic. I guess he would give you the prescription and you'd have to fill it at Guardian or Watsons pharmacies--then they'll have to add you to the database.

And it's funny that you have to remind that, because, on another forum, somebody mentioned that pharmacists here are very lax, and you can claim that you are a tourist and you that you need the medication as such medication is not available in the next country you are visiting etc. etc.

The person went on to advice that 'pharmacy hopping' with specifically looking out for foreign pharmacists seem to do the trick ....

To which I disagreed with, but I didn't want to get into a shooting match

Personally, I have had urgent calls for help from back home, for various medications and I had the fun of getting medication from Mount E, after the Mount E doctors on call personally spoke with the corresponding doctors back home, each and every time, as the medication was not available back home, and I was pretty amused when some guys insist that you can bypass the prescription process for Non-OTC medication

How does the pharmacies handle 'tourists' with serious allergies and need large dosage of pseudephedrine, for example ??

[boffenl]

You're out of luck or hitch a taxi ride to Johor. Seriously. This was the suggestion when my sister didn't bring her nasal decongestant stuff and the clarinase didn't work.

[ecureilx]

You're out of luck or hitch a taxi ride to Johor. Seriously. This was the suggestion when my sister didn't bring her nasal decongestant stuff and the clarinase didn't work.

errr .... for Johor, I saw a friend, being told "NO PRESCRIPTION NO MEDICINE" at a pharmacy in JB, and my friend took it as a request to pay more.. to which the pharmacist was mighty offended

The pharmacist was like "you want me to loose my license ha ?? "

That was a few years ago ..

Pharmacy hopping in JB may work I guess .

[boffenl]

Sorry, my bad--the new database hasn't been launched yet.

TNP (p4) reported that drug addicts in the Chai Chee area could be injecting themselves with Dormicum, a benzodiazepine. TNP reporters found a used syringe in the area during a visit on Friday. Dormicum is sold for between 70 cents and $2 per pill at certain clinics, and can be bought at about $9 on the black market. Dormicum is seen as the cheaper alternative to other substances such as heroin and Subutex. Drug abusers are known to inject themselves with a mixture of Dormicum and water. TNP reported that MOH first tightened guidelines on the use of this class of drugs in 2008 and is now seeking public feedback on the proposal to make it mandatory for all doctors to enter dispensing details into the web-based Central Drug Prescribing Registry system.