i suffer from terrible headaches and have for many years been prescribed dihydracodine 30mg tablets which are really effective for me.
going to zante this weekend and i have read that codine is a banned substance in greece.
any advice on what i should do.
the medication is prescribed to me from my gp.
nemo
I take Paracetamol/Codeine tablets for my migraines. When I travel abroad I take the counterpart to my prescription with me to show that my doctor has prescribed them.
took my co-codamol without documentatin had no problems from earler threads i thinl it's just codine phosphate thats banned. not when it is in a compoundded form with other drugs
Just done a random search on internet by typing in 'codeine in Greece' and the articles I read clearly stated that codeine found in analgesia, cough medicines etc is banned. It does say that if you are on prescription medication though to take your 'script+labelled meds. with you (ie DF118+ co-codamol preparations such as kapake, solpadol). These are prescription only drugs only. You can only buy the weaker co-codamol 8/500 over the counter here.
Codeine is an addictive opiate which is more tightly controlled in Greece where it is only available on prescription even when combined with other drugs. Greek law prevents the use of codeine in 'over the counter' medications but it is not banned per se. If you take prescribed medications that include codeine you are unlikely to have problems as long as you take a copy of your prescription with you - I usually carry a copy of my repeat prescription with me. However, you would be well advised not to take anything that can be purchased over the counter here if it contains codeine - your pharmacist can suggest alternatives.
I rang the Greek National Tourism Organisation's London office and they said that as long as I had a letter from my GP stating that it was a prescribed medication that would be fine. Saying that nobody has ever asked about drugs at customs but on my way back from Greece this year there did seem to be an increase in random suitcase searches (about 1 in every 20).
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