Taking medications on plane

Suppose person A wants to take medication on a plane. He is traveling with person B who person A doesn't want to know that he is taking medication.

Would TSA agents remove the prescription bottles of pills to check them? Note that this is a flight in America.

Best Answer

As a general rule, TSA will have no interest at all in your pills. You will be able to leave them in your bag, and they will not be interested in seeing them let alone knowing what they are.

The two exceptions to this would likely be :

If you had an excessive number of pills. In this case they may see that on the X-ray and may be interesting in checking what they are to confirm that they are not some form of illegal drugs.
If you gave them some other reason to search your bag, such as if they saw a sharp item (eg, knife), liquids, or other disallowed item on the X-ray. In this case their interest would still not be in the medication, but they may remove the medication whilst searching through the bag looking for whatever else they saw.

So as long as you don't give them a reason to look in your bag, it's almost certain the companion will not have any chance to see the pills.

(Note that the answer would be different if the medication was a liquid, as that would fall under the standard liquid rules which would, at a minimum, generally require the items to be removed from your bag and placed through the X-ray separately from your other items)