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PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE TABLETS, this is what happened to me in January 2006, I have copied my previous posting as I am not clued up on how to do a link, but what happened to me can very easily happen to any one.
Please be very careful with what they give you, this year in January, we had stayed in Goa for 7 weeks, and we left Goa for Mumbai, to spend another week before travelling home, as we were hiring the same villa for another holiday in November we left two suitcases, in the land lords house for our return.
It wasen't until we reached Mumbai that we realised we had left our medication in Goa, both my husband and I take very strong prescription pain killers, we wern't worried as I had a copy of our prescription, and we took this to a pharmacy in Mumbai, we were given the equivelent to our prescription so we thought. My pain killers are Tramodol, and are usually capsules in this country, I take between four and 8 capsules a day, I was given small white tablets, which I used as I normally do. I felt great.
On arriving back in this country, and arriving home, I got into the car to drive to the supermarket, to get some milk and bread, on the way to the supermarket, the engine stalled I started the car again, forgetting I was still in gear, I drove into the back of a 60,000 pound Jaguar, writing off his car, and also writing off my car, which was exactly 3 months old. The police were called, and I was breathalised, which I passed, but the police arrested me believing I was under the influence of drugs, they had asked me to walk a straight line, with out the aid of my crutch, and to do daft tests like standing on one foot, for the count of 50, well I couldn't do this any way as I have a damaged hip, at the police station I gave a urine sample, and this was sent away for testing, in the mean while I was bailed.
2 months later I returned to the police station as per the bail, expecting that there would be no charge, as the only drugs that I had taken were my prescription drugs, you can imagine my horror to find that the sample that I had given them revealed that I had been taking VALIUM what I thought was Tramadol was Valium and I had been taking up to 8 a day for the past week, I was charged with Driving under the influence of prescription drugs.
Besides losing my licence I was also under the threat of Prison because of the amount of Valium I had in my system, It took nearly 4 months, with the aid of a very good Solicitor to get this case dropped, we had to employ a laboratory to get the tablets I had remaining annalised, an orthapedic surgeon, to examine me to prove that I couldn't have passed the tests, Doctors letters were needed, It was four months of sheer hell.
In the end the Crown Prosecution decided not to go ahead with the case as they could not guarentee successful outcome of my being proved Guilty. I was damned lucky, because if I had been found guilty my insurance would not have covered me, I would have had to pay out more than 80,000 pounds for the cars, and also the injuries to the other driver.
Never again will I use my prescription abroad, so please be very very careful with what tablets you are given. There tablets are not the same as ours, so you wont know the difference, until it is too late.