The ADHD medication I rely on to function is banned from the country I travel to most often.
M
y girlfriend and I have been dating for five years, and we share an obsession with Japan. Our childhood rooms had dorky posters of the country lining our walls, and we frequently geek out over minimalism and ryokan architecture. If we were to get married, it’d be the obvious place for a honeymoon.
But one day, while scrolling TikTok, dreaming of fun activities we’d eventually do in the country, I encountered a very unexpected problem: Japan does not allow Adderall inside its borders. While I was shocked to learn that they don’t allow a medication I’ve taken every day since I was 13, I was even more shocked that it is banned entirely. In fact, you can go to jail for having a single capsule on your person in the country.
The ban on Adderall in Japan dates back to a law that was made because of high addiction to meth and stimulants following WWII. Amphetamines were used during WWII to keep soldiers from being fatigued, and were also relied on by kamikaze pilots, according to History.com. And, according to the Tokyo Weekender, all stimulants, including Adderall, were subsequently banned by the government in 1951 after it was revealed that they were devastatingly addictive.
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Japan isn’t the only country with such a law. For example, Singapore also has strict restrictions on the drug, as does much of Europe. However, in Europe, packing the drug in its original prescription bottle and bringing along a doctor’s note will suffice. In Singapore, you need a visa, but no jail time is mentioned as a penalty. And while in Singapore and many other Asian countries, the death penalty is applicable for some drug offenses, Japan takes stimulants like Adderall the most seriously, with the potential for 10-year imprisonment.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Japan, “Many common medications and over-the-counter drugs in the United States are illegal in Japan. It does not matter if you have a valid U.S. prescription for a medicine/drug that is illegal in Japan: if you bring it, you risk arrest and detention by the Japanese authorities.”
This is just another challenge travelers with ADHD face when planning a trip. Another one is insurance itself. My insurance, and many others, only allow a patient to purchase a month’s supply at a time, and refilling it early is not an option. This means that if you get a refill at the beginning of the month but have a week-long trip at the end of the month overlapping into the next month, there would be no way to refill your prescription. There is a way to override this, but pharmacies and insurance companies can only do it once a year.
Then this is further complicated by the fact that the drug is becoming increasingly scarce all around the country. Due to supply chain issues, the U.S. is seeing one of the biggest drug shortages ever. Personally, I’ve been calling around to different pharmacies in the area to ensure they have it in stock before my doctor prescribes it, and based on the pharmacists and doctors I’ve spoken with, I’m far from alone.
If you can find Adderall and ensure you have enough to travel, there are two suggestions for safely bringing the drug into the country. The first is a simple one: take a different medication instead. You can bring up to 2.16 grams of Concerta or Ritalin into Japan without a permit. Alternatively, you can also bring under a month’s supply of Vyvanse without a permit, according to the Japanese embassy. Of course, switching to a different drug isn’t easy, and some patients report nausea or ineffectiveness when making the switch–so, consult your doctor.
The second option is more complicated. You can apply for Yakkan Shoumei, an import certificate that allows the import of otherwise prohibited drugs. This would allow one to bring in over 2.16g of methylphenidate and works the same if you want to bring in more of the aforementioned drugs into the country. The embassy recommends applying for this at least two weeks before traveling.
While it is not entirely impossible to travel with ADHD medication, it is still more difficult than you would expect. On a recent trip to Singapore, I was successfully able to apply for a similar style of visa. No one ever checked my visa or my bag for the drug, but it was nice to have. After all, I wouldn’t want to spend my entire trip in a foreign prison.