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Home » Reader question » Are all medicines freely available in Thailand?
Are all medicines freely available in Thailand?
Dear readers,
I want to stock up on some medicine during my holiday in Thailand. According to an acquaintance, you can buy almost anything in Thailand without a prescription at the pharmacy. But is that really so? I assume you can't just buy heavy painkillers such as opiates and sleeping tablets?
Can someone tell me what is and what is not freely available in Thailand? And how difficult/easy is it to get a recipe?
Regards,
Ben
Provided that rules in Thailand are flexible, my experience is that tramadol and ultracet (the latter contains 75% of the tramadol and 375 mg of paracetamol) are not freely available. Now I was bent over with pain so I didn't have to convince the ortho doctor, but I didn't get more pills than before 4 weeks. I just had to make another appointment.
I have no experience with sleeping pills; I got pregabalin without a prescription.
If you want to take it with you to NL or B, check what you are allowed to enter; tramadol is an opiate. In Arab countries, among others, taking it means imprisonment or worse, so watch out which country you enter.
You can indeed buy a lot of medicines in Thailand, but sometimes they are very expensive because you have to pay the full pot because we do not have to pay for most of it ourselves with our good social security, but the Thais do not have that. This is also why you can buy pills per piece and that also applies to the Philippines where you can also buy cigarettes per piece. I do wonder how that should be done if one has to follow a whole course of, for example, a week… Does that help?
I'm following this. I am concerned about the drug Creon 25000 pancreatin.
Kind regards, Jessica
Short answer In Thailand, not all medicines are readily available.
Hence my question.
Sure. Everything is available.
Thank you Ger!
That is absolutely NOT true. Not all medicines are available in Thailand.
Not many antibiotics, for example
Not many heavy painkillers
Some heart medications do not
Medications that are opiates or heavy narcotic are also not.
Don't shout anything. Yes, many medicines that are only available on a doctor's prescription in the Netherlands can be obtained here in or at a pharmacy. However, specific medicines are NOT on the market here.
I need specific medication for my heart, which I have to bring with me or have it sent to me from the Netherlands.
This also applies to antidepressants.
Nonsense Ger, really nonsense… or give the names of the pharmacies.
Sleep medication such as Temazepam is not available in Thailand without a prescription. Not even under the counter.
Well Diazepam, is always under the counter or cupboard.
I'm now 3 weeks back and you can hardly buy anything on prescription anymore.
What they do sell is a different composition and that is of no use to you.
I just go to a small clinic, a doctor. Ask for sleeping tablets and just get them, 1000 baht for 50 pieces. After asking the doctor the first time, I now ask the receptionist, and just get them, 50 pieces. So you don't have to pay for the doctor's consultation.
I also did for years (sleeping tablets for on the plane), but a year ago the clinic reported that it was no longer allowed, I had to go to a hospital for that.
Don't worry, you will be taken seriously anyway if you pay 1000 baht for 50 pieces, doctor's consultation or not.
Not everything is available medicines or sleeping pills such as xanax abrozapan,
Diazepam only go on recpt
My experience is that there are more medicines available in Thai pharmacies (and cheaper) than here. I didn't have to go to the doctor for everything. I lived there for 6 years.
There is confusion about the question. The question is whether medication is available FREE of charge. Not if it is available at all through the free or hospital pharmacy. People talk past each other. Shame.
Opiates are available ON PRESCRIPTION.
I have tried to indicate twice that NOT everything is readily available in Thailand. Opiates almost if not. It also depends on the dosage and the means.
Codeine is already tricky.
With or without a doctor's prescription. Some medicines they just don't know. NOT the replacements. Heavy painkillers, sleeping tablets, many tablets for psychological and mental problems are not even known. I'm a heart patient and I can't even go to Thailand for that.
Oh and I even have a REAL British-studied Chinese-Thai acquaintance in my private circle.
He sometimes arranges medicines for me through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
Rori, then you have different experience than me. Tramadol is available on prescription in Thailand, but through the hospital pharmacy. They don't know Oxicodon. I'm talking about 1,5 years ago in Nongkhai General and private Wattana Nongkhai. Both products contain morphine, a product made from opium.