How a record is built, and what its rating means
A confidence rating is meaningless unless you can see how it was arrived at. This page is that.
We compile what governments publish about carrying controlled medication across their borders. We do not interpret it, we do not advise on it, and where the published position is unclear we say so rather than fill the gap with an assumption.
We've done the research. You make the call. That is not a disclaimer bolted on at the end. It is the reason the source link sits beside every claim.
What counts as a source
We use
- National drug and medicines legislation, in the original language where that is what exists.
- Health, medicines and customs authority guidance published by the government itself.
- A country's own submissions to the International Narcotics Control Board, which are often more specific than its public guidance.
- Written replies from an authority, quoted with the date they were received.
We do not use
- Forum posts, social media threads and traveller anecdotes, as a source for a rule.
- Airline, travel insurer or travel agent summaries, which are frequently out of date.
- Other aggregator sites, including the ones that rank above us.
- Anything an assistant or a language model produced without a citation we could open and verify ourselves.
There are currently 1079 distinct official sources linked across 198 countries and territories, of which 749 sit on a national government domain and 228 are international-body material. An archived snapshot can show that a page once existed. It is never used as the live link we send you to.
What the three ratings mean
A rating also decays. Where a record's newest source is more than two years old, the rating shown on the page is reduced automatically, whatever it was rated when it was written. Of the 198 records here, 51 currently rate high, 93 medium and 54 low. We publish that spread rather than hiding it, because a quiet gap is more dangerous than a visible one.
Recording an absence as a finding
When a country publishes no processing time for a permit, that is an answer, not a hole to fill. The record says so in the authority's own words and the number stays empty. We never estimate a lead time, because a made-up number is indistinguishable from a real one once it is on a page, and you would plan around it.
The same applies in reverse. "No declaration required" is a claim about the law and needs a source exactly as much as a restriction does.
How often it is re-read
Every link on the site is checked automatically once a week, and anything that breaks is raised against the code rather than left to rot on the page. The records here were last reviewed between July 2026 and August 2026, and each country page shows its own review date.
Where our job stops
We gather the rules and link the page they came from. We are not a law firm, a clinic or a pharmacy, and nothing here is legal or medical advice. Whether a medication is right for you is for you and your prescriber, and what is permitted at a border is decided by that country's officials on the day, not by us and not by the document you carry.
That is why every record links its source. The source is what a border officer recognises, and reading it before you fly is the part that stays with you.
Found something wrong?
A dead link, a changed form, a cap that is no longer right, or an answer you were given at a border that contradicts what we hold. Corrections with a source attached are read the same week, and the record shows the date it changed.