How to get Drugs

[Fat Freddie]

I am taking my boat across the atlantic next year and want to extend my first aid kit with anti-biotics and possibly morphine. Does anyone know how I can legally obtain these prescription drugs?

 

[sarabande]

first call should be your GP, and ask him to provide a covering letter.

You should also do the ship's captain medical course, or the 4 day First Aid one at the very least, if you are taking that sort of analgesic with you .

 

[capnsensible]

If you pit stop in Gib, you will get most things over the counter. Also excellent support at College Clinic. Well versed in the needs of Atlantic Yacht crews. Stuff supplied here will be in date longer for your travels, including jabs (various).

Hope this helps.

 

[Fat Freddie]

Thanks for the tips. I will try the GP first and if no joy a call in to Gibraltar.
All my crew, me, the wife and daughter, have done basic first aid and I had planned on one of the crew doing an advanced course. ANy recommendations on course providers?

 

[Daedelus]

Try this lot: very knowledgeable and good course. http://www.ktyyachts.com/

If you do the Ship Captain's course it takes 7 days but at the end of it if you pass the exam (and there's an independent examiner) you get showered with certificates and with these - or at least one in particular - you can order the drugs you want from the wholesaler.

The course will also help you in deciding what you should carry and how you should store it, for example morphine and one or two other delights require a proper locked locker that is difficult to break into. Obvious really.

It also makes you aware of how you obtain assistance if you really need it and of what you are undertaking.

Also great fun if you get the right crowd, but 9-5 and homework!

 

[KellysEye]

As others have said a friendly GP will prescribe for you if you explain what you are doing. Also you can get prescription drugs in Portugal without a prescription (we haven't bought antibiotics though). Don't touch morphine, there are some very powerful painkiller substitutes that don't make you too drowsy - ask your doc.

 

[TQA]

Be very very sure that you have a prescription for any morphine type drug. If you are searched and such a drug is found and you can not show a prescription then expect to live in interesting times. It gives authorities the right to sieze, hold, confiscate and jail you.

OK you may persuade them it was a small quantity for personal use only BUT don't expect to gain entry to the USA ever if you have a drugs conviction!

This is from a US news source.

"Asset forfeiture was an enforcement tool well before Zero Tolerance. Zero Tolerance, however, expanded the use of civil forfeiture to cases involving small quantities of drugs. Previously, only confiscation of contraband was likely to result from the discovery of drugs. Civil forfeiture in general has been a very popular tool among law enforcement personnel. There is added incentive to use the forfeiture penalty because profits from the forfeiture program are channelled back to law enforcement programs.
Less than two months after Zero Tolerance took effect on March 21, 1988, the Customs Service had seized over 700 vehicles, and the Coast Guard had seized twenty-seven boats, including Hogan's Hold Tight. n136 Hogan's case was not the only case involving the seizure of valuable commercial property. On the Canadian border at Blaine, Washington, Customs officers seized a $ 100,000 rig when they discovered a marijuana cigarette in the cab. In Key West, Florida, the Coast Guard seized a seventy-three-foot fishing boat and sold its eight-day haul of fish for $ 5,827, after officials discovered three grams of marijuana seeds and stems on board. The most valuable property seized in the first month of Zero Tolerance's operation was the $ 2.5 million yacht Ark Royal. The Coast Guard found one-tenth of an ounce of marijuana aboard the chartered boat. As if to prove that Zero Tolerance really meant zero tolerance, officials have also seized property in cases where only minuscule quantities of drugs had been discovered. One woman in Washington had her car impounded after Customs inspectors used tweezers to remove one-tenth of a gram of marijuana from the bottom of her purse.

Targets of Zero Tolerance may regain their property eventually. In some cases, officials apparently have recognized the injustice involved and returned property after payment of a fine and seizure fee. In other cases, those whose property has been seized can only hope that the government fails to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the seized property was either purchased with drug profits or used in committing a drug crime. Acquittal in a criminal case does not affect the government's standard of proof in a later forfeiture suit.

The seizure of Kevin Hogan's fishing boat at the height of the Alaska fishing season because a crew member possessed marijuana was a penalty disproportionate to his crime. Even if one recognizes a duty of boat owners to hire drug-free employees, the failure to do so certainly registers a rather low level of blameworthiness. Scant evidence exists to show marijuana to be a significant long-term health risk. n143 Although marijuana causes reduced mental and physical levels of functioning, it is absurd to argue that pot in the pocket of a fisherman represents the public risk that it might, say, in the hands of a United Airlines 747 pilot. A $ 140,000 fine and possible bankruptcy is not an appropriate penalty for inadequate attention to a crew member's drug use. "

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

Before setting off on our liveaboard jaunt I asked the doc for antibiotics for the first aid kit.(mainly to deal with infected cuts and the like). "Fine" he said"as long as its penicillin based". I then asked for an epi-pen in case someone had an allergic reaction. "What a good idea" he said "as a lot of people are allergic to penicillin"!!

 

[jellyellie]

...This is from a US news source.

"Asset forfeiture was an enforcement tool well before Zero Tolerance. Zero Tolerance, however, expanded the use of civil forfeiture to cases involving small quantities of drugs. Previously, only confiscation of contraband was likely to result from the discovery of drugs. Civil forfeiture in general has been a very popular tool among law enforcement personnel. There is added incentive to use the forfeiture penalty because profits from the forfeiture program are channelled back to law enforcement programs.
Less than two months after Zero Tolerance took effect on March 21, 1988, the Customs Service had seized over 700 vehicles, and the Coast Guard had seized twenty-seven boats, including Hogan's Hold Tight. n136 Hogan's case was not the only case involving the seizure of valuable commercial property. On the Canadian border at Blaine, Washington, Customs officers seized a $ 100,000 rig when they discovered a marijuana cigarette in the cab. In Key West, Florida, the Coast Guard seized a seventy-three-foot fishing boat and sold its eight-day haul of fish for $ 5,827, after officials discovered three grams of marijuana seeds and stems on board. The most valuable property seized in the first month of Zero Tolerance's operation was the $ 2.5 million yacht Ark Royal. The Coast Guard found one-tenth of an ounce of marijuana aboard the chartered boat. As if to prove that Zero Tolerance really meant zero tolerance, officials have also seized property in cases where only minuscule quantities of drugs had been discovered. One woman in Washington had her car impounded after Customs inspectors used tweezers to remove one-tenth of a gram of marijuana from the bottom of her purse.

Targets of Zero Tolerance may regain their property eventually. In some cases, officials apparently have recognized the injustice involved and returned property after payment of a fine and seizure fee. In other cases, those whose property has been seized can only hope that the government fails to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the seized property was either purchased with drug profits or used in committing a drug crime. Acquittal in a criminal case does not affect the government's standard of proof in a later forfeiture suit.

The seizure of Kevin Hogan's fishing boat at the height of the Alaska fishing season because a crew member possessed marijuana was a penalty disproportionate to his crime. Even if one recognizes a duty of boat owners to hire drug-free employees, the failure to do so certainly registers a rather low level of blameworthiness. Scant evidence exists to show marijuana to be a significant long-term health risk. n143 Although marijuana causes reduced mental and physical levels of functioning, it is absurd to argue that pot in the pocket of a fisherman represents the public risk that it might, say, in the hands of a United Airlines 747 pilot. A $ 140,000 fine and possible bankruptcy is not an appropriate penalty for inadequate attention to a crew member's drug use. "

That kind of ignorance and jobsworthiness makes me mad. It's worth pointing out that the article is talking about things that happened in the 80s, but you are correct, entry to the USA with any kind of drug conviction will be pretty impossible today.

 

[puddock]

Give "Twitchy" a call (0897 555555), he'll sort you out ;-)