From 1 January 2013 all travellers leaving or travelling through Schengen area[1] with medicinal products containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substances must carry a valid „Certificate for transport of medicinal products containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substances” (hereinafter, Certificate) approved by the Health Inspectorate (hereinafter, Inspectorate). According to Council Decision 2000/365/EC and 2002/192/EC these provisions also apply to the UK and Ireland.
These provisions are enforced through amendments to the Law on Procedures for the Legal Trade of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances and Medicinal Products based on Article 75 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement. Form of the certificate can be found in Annex 96 of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Regulation 265 Procedures for Registration of Medical Documents.
Certificate is issued by a medical doctor who has prescribed patient medicine for out-patient treatment by filling in a special prescription form following the procedures set out in regulations regarding prescription forms.
Doctor must also provide excerpt from out-patient treatment card (Form 027/u) that contains information about patient’s health condition, diagnosis and reasons for prescribing narcotic and/or psychoactive substance. Such certificate may be issued to citizens, non-citizens of Latvia and foreign citizens holding residence permit and travelling across Schengen area while using medicinal products containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substances. Each medicinal product containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substances requires a separate certificate.
Certificate consists of 4 sections – A, B, C and D.
Section A, B and C are filled in by the doctor:
Section A: information aboutmedical institution and doctor,
Section B: informationabout patient; travel start and end date, number of travel days for which medicinal product containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substance is prescribed. Maximum number of travel days is limited to 30 days.
Section C: information about medicinal medicinal product required by the treatment – medicine name, type, dosage, international name of active substance and its total amount. The total amount of medicinal product containing narcotic drugs and/or psychoactive substances required to complete the treatment must not exceed the number of travel days indicated in the certificate.
Information in Section A, B and C is validated and stamped by medical institution. Doctors shall inform patients of necessity to acquire the approval of certificate and out-patient medical card excerpt (Form 027/u) from the Inspectorate.
Section D of the certificate is filled in by Inspectorate staff.
Certificates may be submitted for Inspectorate’s approval at its offices in:
Riga, 7 Klijānu Street, Ph.: 67205127;
Kuldīga, 2 Pilsētas laukums, Ph.: 63323799;
Daugavpils, 105 18. Novembra Street, Ph.: 65424547;
Valmiera, 9 L. Paegles Street, Ph.: 64281130;
Jelgava, 3 Zemgales prospekts, Ph.: 63083193.
Please call in advance to agree on preferred time for submitting certificate for approval.
For more information on approval of certificates, please see our web-page or call 67807530.
[1] Latvia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Lichtenstein, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Switzerland.