Beauregard

I ordered some vitamin supplements from <<<snip>>>in the US a few weeks ago. My shipment was delayed by Malaysian Customs and when I received it, there was a "Warning Letter" attached to the parcel.

The Warning Letter states: "Importation of medicines, pharmaceutical products, health supplements, and cosmetics without authorisation / license / permit is an OFFENCE under Regulation 30 (1) of the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 which is punishable with a fine of up to RM25,000 and / or 3 years imprisonment under Section 12 (1) of the Sale of Drugs Act 1952."

Wow!

On this occaision, Malaysian Customs allowed me to receive my terribly dangerous vitamin and mineral tablets but they went on to advise me that: "We would not hesitate to take legal action if this offense is repeated and your items will be confiscated."

Double wow!!

Has anyone else encountered this situation? Are these people serious? Someone please tell me this is a joke! Importing vitamins and cosmetics is legally restricted in Malaysia!? Drugs and pharmaceuticals I could understand but 3 years of imprisonment for importing a bottle of vitamin C tablets or a tube of lip gloss???

I have been in Malaysia for 6 months under MM2H and everything has been great so far. I love the heat, the people are friendly and the prices are terrific for anyone with Western levels of income and savings but I honestly don't think I can live here if I can't have my supplements since I find my health benefits from them enormously. The supplements I see being sold here are not particularly good in my opinion, most of the ones I want are simply not available that I can see and in many cases are much cheaper when purchased from the US. For example I was at a GNC shop in a local mall a few months back and they wanted 360 RM for a bottle of coenzyme Q10, when I can buy the same thing from <<<snip>>>for about 50 RM.

Has anyone ever heard of an ex-pat in Malaysia being charged for importing health supplements? Any feedback from others or anecdotes on the subject would be much appreciated.

InVinoVeritas

We know how tough Malaysia is on drugs and, after all, cannabis is a herb which has many medicinal uses but is also a narcotic. I think if you bring your vitamins over in your suitcase you won't have a problem.

columbine

It's not a joke Beauregard. Even organic lip gloss and facial cream arrived a day late and accompanied with same warning last month.

Beauregard

@Jerseygirl: I am new to the group and didn't know that company names are not allowed in posts. I didn't see anything about that rule when I joined this group.

So, out of curiosity: Why has "GNC shop" been left in my post while the reference to the US company was deleted? Or are company names only prohibited when they have "Dot Com" in their name? Thanks in advance!

Jerseygirl

We get dozens and dozens of new members every day who join BE purely to spam. When a new member posts a link or company name it is normally picked up by our auto spam filter...because it looks a little spammy. As the name was written more than once it looked suspicious.

I am sorry if your intentions were genuine.

Beauregard

Yeah, I'm sorry that my intentions were genuine - I much prefer being evil, EVIL!!! LOL!

The company name that was deleted had "Dot Com" in the name and I noticed that it popped up as a link when I posted originally, even though it wasn't actually a link. I guess that's something the HTML code does on this site? (Which would be an odd thing if posting links to businesses in not acceptable.) I'll avoid company names in future when I post and just say I bought the item from a bloke in an alleyway in a plain brown paper parcel!

I will try and keep my intentions genuine as well.

P.S. I love your insane dancing mouse, Jerseygirl - really cute!

Jerseygirl

We allow members to post links as long as it is not advertising. A new member posting links...especially when it appears more than once...looks like spam.

Now we have established that you are not a spammer you should be OK.

Beauregard

Thanks Jerseygirl, much appreciated!

OriginalSunshine

Has anyone else had this problem?

I wanted to get some high strength omega 3 oils in for my adhd kids.

Beauregard

I don't know why you are suddenly talking about drugs. Vitamins and related health supplements are not drugs and have about as much to do with drugs as does make-up. I can't imagine why the Malaysian government included health supplements and make-up in the same legislation along with medicines and pharmaceutical products and I can't conceive how anyone else would imagine such totally disrelated substances were connected in any way.

Extracts of the cannabis plant clearly have medicinal value and have been prescribed by physicians for over 250 different medical conditions but that being said, cannabis could hardly be called a "health supplement". In regards to the legislation under discussion, cannabis preparations would surely be classed as medicines in the unlikely event that they were ever to allowed into the country.

Also, if it is not allowed to import vitamin supplements into Malaysia without a license and government approval of the product then the route by which one imports the products is irrelevant. Bring the products into the country in your suitcase would be just as illegal as having it shipped in by courier or post.

montakute

I decided to look up the regulations and I think I found them here if anyone's interested:

http://www.pharmacy.gov.my/v2/sites/...ation-1984.pdf

It looks like you can bring in a very limited amount (one month's supply) of health supplements your suitcase: "The provisions of subregulations (1) relating to importation do not apply to any person arriving in the Federation from a place outside of Federation who imports, as part of his personal luggage, any product meant solely for his use or for the use of his family in a quantity not exceeding that which may be reasonably required for one month's use by one person".

I wasn't aware of these restrictions so thanks for bringing them to my attention, Beauregard.

Hovite

This maybe of interest -
http://jknkelantan.moh.gov.my/v3/upl...1/SYM_6-01.pdf

Beauregard

Thanks for the clarification Montakute.

Apologies to InVinoVeritas as it appears I may have misunderstood your comment about importing supplements in one's suitcase.

Davita

Indonesia also make a big deal about vitamin supplements. I was told some syndicates bring them in and extract certain ingredients which, when concentrated, can be used in drug manufacture.
After flying into Bali from Canada recently I was apprehensive when the Customs officer wanted to inspect my case as I had a brand new expensive laptop.
He meticulously and gently removed the bright laptop, put it aside, then aggressively demanded what was in the big jar of Costco's supply of Vitamins for Seniors. I ripped the seal open and he sniffed the ingredients...they really stink! so he replaced the lid...put my laptop back into the suitcase and told me I'm cleared....

InVinoVeritas

No problemo. I only mentioned cannabis because it falls into so many categories in all its derivative forms and yet no-one would expect anything showing cannabis as an ingredient would be allowed into Malaysia. The problem is that the same rules are applied across a whole spectrum of other products including health supplements.

For me the easiest way around this is to simply bring them in your suitcase. The people at the airport are more savvy when it comes to distinguishing between narcotics and other drugs.

As for being allowed to only bring in one month's supply of anything I don't see how that can be reasonably applied especially to an MM2H'er suffering from say, high blood pressure, who travels with a 6-month supply of pills. Or how they can know just how many supplements someone will take in just one month.

I bought in a ton of stuff last time, aspirin, paracetemol, cough syrups, cold remedies, flu treatments, anti-allergies, mosquito repellant, bite treatment, bandages, plasters plus a load of supplements and vitamin pills - in all, a small suitcase full. No problems whatsoever.

Try ordering any of that from a major online vendor and chances are they won't even deliver to Malaysia.