Hello all, recently arrived and am set to start a year-long internship at a research institution very soon. I had a question regarding shipping an OTC medication I am on.
There is one Japanese alternative available, but it is absurdly expensive at 4x the cost of just importing. There are light restrictions in customs laws—you can import up to 2 months-supply of this treatment every two months. The exact wording from the pharmaceutical importer I intended on using
> We appreciate your understanding as this is due to the fact that under Japanese law, individuals are not allowed to import three or more of these products within two months.
However my question—this medication is very much a continuous-use thing. While hardly fatal, a week off the treatment can have side effects I would much prefer to avoid. Is it possible to time my orders such that I receive another 2-month supply around the time my previous runs out? If customs notes an order passing through a few days short of 2 months since the last one, will it be held for that few days then released or just thrown out altogether?
>!And while obviously attempting to skirt customs laws are illegal and could never be publicly endorsed, is this the kind of thing where I could order a single month’s supply to a friend to act as a buffer and offset my use to ensure a continuous supply?!<
NOTE: In case it needed to be clarified, this is not a recreational drug of any kind and I have no intention of reselling or smuggling or anything along those lines. This is purely me trying to make sure I don’t have any gaps in medication for myself.
3 comments
Have you checked if it’s available via prescription which is most often cheaper than OTC?
Most Japanese people will even get cold medication via a doctor’s prescription as it’s that much cheaper.
Do you have a friend in Japan who possesses a different address that you can request the drug to be mailed to? Then you don’t have to worry about the 2 month interval restriction anymore.
They’re really cracking down on minoxidil (it’s pretty obvious this is what you’re talking about) shipments apparently, and because of shipping time variation so much it’s pretty much impossible to just get pharmaceuticals sent exactly the same day every month. You’re going to have to use the stuff here to fill in the gaps.