Legality of buying medicines online for UK residents

[Trabolgan]

reading the legislation for the legality of schedualed drug laws for the Uk is very interesting if you go through it by each medication, for the most part here in the UK it is not illegal to possess certain typed of medication, diazepam was named as not illegal to possess as long as it is only a 28 days supply to be used by you personally and is being used for the porpose meant, obviously not class A / B meds its the sellers, vendors, dealers 'exportors' the laws target, some of the benzo's are not stated as legal to buy online but are not stated as being illegal to possess! (excluding temazepam (why is temazepam so highly illegal here???)

[fuego]

@Trabolgan Hello, do you have a link or other source for the information above, please? That sounds like interesting reading.

I believe that temazepam became a big problem at street level in the mid 90s, especially in Scotland. At the time it was predominantly available as gel-filled capsules or 'jellies' and users took to heating and injecting the contents of the capsules as heat made the liquid less viscous. Needless to say injecting hot liquids is very damaging, and when the liquid cooled it would block veins and lead to gangrene, amputations and other complications including fatalities. I lived in Scotland during this time and it was regularly in the news along with very emotive interviews with people who had lost limbs and friends in this way. I understand that all UK manufacture of temazepam was switched to solid tablets to prevent this practice, and that it was made a special case in law.

In short temazepam was demonised.

Edited to add: I have just found this source from 1996 on the classification of temazepam: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/te...k-1323847.html

[Maskell]

There are too many stories on the BBC about people ordering their meds online simply by filling out a form.

I've never seen any and was surprised to hear this, but putting:

site:hxxp://www.bbc.co.uk/ "prescription drugs"

(changing "xx" to "tt" of course) into Google does indeed turn up over 7000 results, including a report from a fortnight ago headlined:

£75,000 of oxycodone seized in Belfast and Comber

Who'd have thought it?


Here's an up-to-date report about IOPs and the UK (although the remarks about illegality seem to apply to Northern Ireland, where the report originated.

There are some alarming stats.

BBC News - Free movement of prescription drugs hampers regulation

We have a situation now where one in seven people in the UK are buying medicines online...

There is a 50% chance that you will get a counterfeit medicine from some online prescription websites

Customs reckon between five to 10 % of illegal medicines sent through the post are picked up at customs level...

Another thing the European Union is looking at is putting a safety feature on medicine packaging...

[Geordie]

I've only had one package seized by U.K customs m8, and this was a few years ago, before they really ramped up the "war on terror stuff".

But all i got was a nice, polite letter from her majesty's customs & excise saying they had my package, and i would have to go to their offices to pick it up!
suffice to say i never did, and never heard anything after that

peace

Yeah, I've only ever had one seizure letter too. Benzo's are a Class C drug (Weed is Class B again now I believe, just to put it in perspective)...So yeah, when they seize it, there's no threats at all...

[Budley]

Benzos such as Diazepam are class C schedule IV I believe, so the chances of getting done for possession with a personal amount is miniscule, temazepams are a different matter though as they were upgraded to class B.

[Becksy]

If temazepam are a class B substance mainly due to the reason that in the 1990's people was injecting the "jellies" and causing substantial injuries to themselves which lead to the gelled filled capsules being taken off the market and being replaced by tablets. Surely as they are now in tablet form the should be downgraded as a class C such as other benzos such as diazepam etc.

[Budley]

When have the drug laws ever been reasonable?

[Grenouille]

It is always useful to have a full list of the drug categories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugs_...e_of_Drugs_Act

People aren't aware but there also is a different type of drug scheduling too, normally only used by pharmacists and doctors but you may be interested:
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Controlled-Drugs.htm

[funkh]

If temazepam are a class B substance mainly due to the reason that in the 1990's people was injecting the "jellies" and causing substantial injuries to themselves which lead to the gelled filled capsules being taken off the market and being replaced by tablets. Surely as they are now in tablet form the should be downgraded as a class C such as other benzos such as diazepam etc.

According to the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) temazepam is actually a class C drug and has been since 1986. The specific order can be found here: legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1985/1995/article/2/made

[joyinmudville]

Does anyone have a current (2012) statutory citation confirming that it is legal to import drugs into the UK for personal use from online pharmacies? I have been reading contradicting information and I am not sure if that is due to misinformation or recent legislative changes. The original post in this thread is six years old.

[funkh]

@joyinmudville

It is currently legal to purchase and import prescription medications from abroad providing they are for personal use only. If you are using an online pharmacy based in the UK then legally a consultation is required, though face-to-face consultations aren't, which is why some pharmacies use their own questionnaire when ordering from them.

[joyinmudville]

@joyinmudville

It is currently legal to purchase and import prescription medications from abroad providing they are for personal use only. If you are using an online pharmacy based in the UK then legally a consultation is required, though face-to-face consultations aren't, which is why some pharmacies use their own questionnaire when ordering from them.

Thank you very much. I am wondering though if you know what statute or regulation codifies the legal status of importation of prescription medications? I would like to look it up to confirm that it is up to date and current, since this is an area of law that doesn't seem so so stable and I haven't been able to find the statute on the uk government legislation website.

[funkh]

@joyinmudville

Section 13(2) of the Medicines Act (1968) provides the exemption for personal or family use. It's available to read at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/67/section/13. If you want to do any further reading then check out the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and the 2001 schedules. Hope this helps!

[joyinmudville]

@joyinmudville

Section 13(2) of the Medicines Act (1968) provides the exemption for personal or family use. It's available to read at Medicines Act 1968. If you want to do any further reading then check out the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and the 2001 schedules. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for the very helpful information! I am glad to see that the legal situation appears to be much more straight forward and less ambiguous in the UK than it is elsewhere. It is good to see the statute since it can sometimes be unclear how up to date unsited online posts are.

[ninefourth]

Benzos such as Diazepam are class C schedule IV I believe, so the chances of getting done for possession with a personal amount is miniscule, temazepams are a different matter though as they were upgraded to class B.

Temazepam used to be Class C, Schedule IV, but they changed it to Schedule III in the mid-90's. I remember there being a lot in the media about overdoses and horror stories involving people melting down the jellies, injecting them and then losing limbs and/or dying when the gel inevitably re-solidified. They also banned the gelcap form of it around that time.

I used to love jellies. Good times.

Is possession without script of the Schedule III ones illegal? Arrestable? I swear it didn't used to be illegal, let alone arrestable.

[Chancer]

@ninefourth

Those where the days...loved the yellows 20s. Used to eat them like sweets...memories :-) :-) :-)

*This post was auto-merged. The following text was added 17 minutes after the last post:*

For anyone still unsure on how the law works I will try and simplify it a little best I can.

Ok the "Medicines Act" allowed for the possession of certain drugs like valium as mentioned above (personal use only) When the online pharmacy amendment was added I believe in 2001 they never closed the loophole. The result has basically left a grey area and allows UK Citizens to buy these drugs from online pharmacies based in countries which don't require a prescription.

The reason it is a grey area is because legal class like A,B or C is in the criminal statute however, the medical statue classes the drugs differently therefore:

Criminal statute classes something as a Class C for example
But
Medical statute classes the same drug as a 4 or 5 etc.

I hope this makes some sense! :-) :-)

If you need some better clarification the best site that explains it is Drugscope.org.uk. and look under the "Misuse of drugs Act 1971" it gives an excellent laymans explanation!

[buggie]

Very informativ, thanks

[Vieno]

Hello folks

I've read this thread and checked some of the sources mentioned. Forgive me for asking again things already discussed, but I am not yet living in the UK and therefore the system is unfamiliar to me in every way (I've spent two months there but that's it!). Also, even though my English is quite fluent I do admit I prefer reading my own language when it comes to a bunch of law information...

So let's just suppose a scenario: I live in the UK (England) and order a clearly less than a 90-day dose of non-controlled medicine without any prescription of any country. Is this perfectly legal so that even if the customs open up the package for some reason, they would not confiscate the pills? Also: does it matter whether the pills are coming from inside EU or from other places such as India?

Thank you. It's exciting to move to a new country but a bit difficult too

[lilyx]

Hello folks

I've read this thread and checked some of the sources mentioned. Forgive me for asking again things already discussed, but I am not yet living in the UK and therefore the system is unfamiliar to me in every way (I've spent two months there but that's it!). Also, even though my English is quite fluent I do admit I prefer reading my own language when it comes to a bunch of law information...

So let's just suppose a scenario: I live in the UK (England) and order a clearly less than a 90-day dose of non-controlled medicine without any prescription of any country. Is this perfectly legal so that even if the customs open up the package for some reason, they would not confiscate the pills? Also: does it matter whether the pills are coming from inside EU or from other places such as India?

Thank you. It's exciting to move to a new country but a bit difficult too

It is technically legal. It is a loophole in the law that I'm amazed they haven't closed yet. I'll try & find a link to the relevant legislation.

[Vieno]

It is technically legal. It is a loophole in the law that I'm amazed they haven't closed yet. I'll try & find a link to the relevant legislation.

I would really appreciate that! And I'd also be glad to get a confirmation for the assumption of mine that it does not matter whether one orders the meds from EU or outside it. True?