My first tears in Mexico were shed over the difficulty in obtaining my controlled substance medication here – Zolpidem aka Ambien, a medication I have used for over 10 years and sadly, that I need. Mexico only has a handful of controlled substances and of course, my medication would be one.
I’ve gone two routes getting my prescription here: the legal way with a doctor’s prescription and the illegal way of getting it from a – what I’ll call – “lenient” pharmacy.
Zolpidem is available in a few different brands in Mexico: Stillnox, Nochte, Notix and some others. Stillnox and Nochte prices vary from $2100-$3000 pesos ($100-150 USD). Notix is a generic brand and I’ve found it for $1700 pesos without a prescription, and $1200 with a prescription (+ $600 pesos local-priced doctor visit).
Overall, it’s been easier to get the medication at a “lenient” pharmacy since it ends up being nearly the same price as going to the doctor for a prescription.
Last night, I used my last tablet and it was time to hit the streets to find my medicine this morning. Little did I know, I would be out for over 3 hours and realize how much resiliency I have built up here.
I packed my US prescription bottle in my purse and headed out to the more local street, av 30 in Playa del Carmen to start my search. I pop into every pharmacy I see, which is 1-2 per block nearly. I show them the bottle and ask if they have it “sin receta” (without a prescription). Some told me that I needed a prescription (Farmacias YZA, Ahorro, FarmaValue, Similares).
Outside of FarmaValue, I stopped for a caramel iced coffee at a cart. Sat at the cart, enjoyed my coffee and mapped out where I’d look next.
The lenient pharmacies only had the brands that cost over $100 USD and I was only going to pay that if absolutely necessary by the end of the day. I continued my search for the cheaper brand – Notix.
After no luck at about 15 pharmacies, I took a pit stop in Forever 21, Librería Gandhi book store (bought Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell), and Sephora.
My route next took me down the infamous 5th Avenue, where I found another four pharmacies within two blocks, which were all out of Notix as well. By this point, I started to weigh the pros and cons of popping into my doctor’s office for a prescription.
I decided that’s the best thing to do and walked a few blocks over to the walk-in clinic of Dr. Bernardo Diaz. I was in and out in 10 minutes with my prescription in hand.
FarmaValue was the cheapest, so I headed back there. Once there, I say hello again and show them my prescription. They then inform me that they can’t fill it even with a prescription, because it’s a controlled substance. So I head down to Farmacia Bazar, where I have successfully gotten this medication with prescription for $1200 pesos before.
I dropped by Walmart on the way to check if I could get it in the pharmacy there – they don’t have it.
Farmacia Bazar only had two brands that are over $100 (with my prescription) and I told her that I will keep looking. She told me that they restock on Thursdays and Fridays, so they might have it next week. I don’t have time to wait for that.
I ran into by Mega Soriana pharmacy – they didn’t have it. I stopped at Farmacias Similares – they didn’t have it.
No idea why I wasn’t losing faith. I almost felt encouraged to overcome the challenge of finding it at this point.
I stopped back at the first YZA pharmacy that I started at today, which is only a few blocks from my house. They have Notix! AND it’s $800 pesos ($40 USD)… I’ve never even seen it this cheap before! I buy it and let out a huge sigh of relief when I stepped outside.
On the way home, I bought a $45 peso smoothie and two vegetarian tamales from a cart for $70 pesos.
This is what real life as a digital nomad looks like.
I usually go straight to the ‘consultorio Mexico’ next to Similares and ask for a prescription. The nice doctor askess if I would like 1 or 2 boxes and writes me the prescription. I pay the good man 50 pesos 🙂 then I’m on my way to either farmacia Guadalajara or Benavides (there is also a consultorio medico next to Benavides but a prescription there will cost 150 pesos. Notix is available at Benavides for 792 pesos. Nocte costs 1573 at Farmacia Guadalajara but they regularly give a discount and you o my pay 1073. Stilnox is the most expensive one and costs a little over 2000 pesos….one time I was able to get it for half of the price, so do keep an eye out for those discounts! Zolpidem seems costly in Mexico but there are some things you can do to keep the costs down. Visit a consultorio medico around or next to farmacia similares , pay 50 pesos for a prescription. Then go for either a box on discount or just Notix. This approach also works well for methylphenidate(Ritalin) btw in case you need something to pick you up in the morning. Another option is ask the doctor for a box of Klodex Clonazepam (Klodex is a good brand and costs 189 pesos per box) and if you want the generic clonazepam you might pay half of that . Remember this drug has a longer half life then Zolpidem ! Sweet dreams 🛌
Ernesto, thank you so much for your advice! I hope this is able to help others. I have since moved to CDMX and switched to Clonozepam. It works great for me as an alternative, much cheaper and easier to obtain! For others – it is still a controlled substance, requires a prescription and you typically cannot obtain more than 2 boxes at a time (normally one, but you can plea for two).