Crossing US Border with Medications and Food Purchased in Mexico

“Federal law prohibits the importation of any drugs that have not been FDA approved.”

Please note: you will be required to carefully read and sign the following form (you do not have to sign it at this time, a hard copy will be provided to you by your driver or on-site coordinator) before crossing the border back to the United States.

• If you are taking prescription medications: Please have all your prescription medications that you need to take daily in their original bottles, do not bring them in a pill dispenser. The bottles must have the name of the medication on them as well as your personal name, and bring only the number of pills sufficient to cover your trip (your stay in Mexico + travel time), not more than that. If you bring more pills than needed for your stay, our on-site team will ask you to discard the remaining ones (especially if they are controlled medications such as strong painkillers Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, ADD/ADHD medication) before heading toward the border, and the border police officer may send you into a secondary inspection.

Upon arrival to the border, the agent will ask you if you have anything to declare; this refers to food and medicine only.

Even if you believe a food item is able to enter the United States, you must declare to the officer that you are bringing food back. Failure to declare food products can result in up to $10,000 in fines and penalties. When in doubt, keep it out.

The following are generally admissible if they are unopened and commercially packed: condiments, vinegars, oils, packaged spices (vanilla), honey, coffee, tea, baby formula, and alcohol (generally, one liter of alcohol per person may be entered into the U.S. duty-free by travelers who are 21 or older) are admissible.

Such food items as any type of meat, poultry, fish, milk products, fresh fruit or vegetables, seeds or grains, products with seeds or grains (like candies with seeds) are not admissible.
If a border patrol agent finds the packaging suspicious in any way, counterfeit, or “mom-and-pop store” type of packaging, such items will be confiscated.

All pharmaceuticals that you have purchased in Mexico must be declared at the border. Lying, or being caught with a large number of drugs beyond a reasonable amount (more than 50 combined total doses) can result in confiscation of the drugs, as well as fines and/or arrest by U.S. Customs agents. All drugs must be kept in their original packaging and contain proper identifying information of the drug accompanied by the prescription letter you received at the hospital upon your discharge. If you brought any medication with you from the US, they also must be kept in their original bottles with your name on them.

In the end it’s up to the border patrol agent to interpret the law, but if you stay within the limits here, most likely you will have an eventless border crossing.

There is a wide range of medicines that can be purchased in Mexico without problems. Some of the more common prescription drugs that you can buy without worrying about breaking U.S. Federal law include:

• Prilosec
• Viagra
• Levitra
• Various antibiotics
• Birth control
• Ketorolac painkiller

Federal law prohibits the importation of any drugs that have not been FDA approved, and this includes foreign-made versions of popular U.S. pharmaceuticals. Additionally, some drugs that are considered controlled substances by the DEA cannot be brought back to the US.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, narcotics and certain other drugs with a high potential for abuse – Tramadol, Oxycodone, Morphine, Medical Marijuana, Rohypnol, GHB and Fen-Phen, to name a few – may not be brought into the United States, and there are severe penalties for trying to do so.

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