Where to find drugs in Qatar

Self-medication is an elaborate cocktail that everyone has to work out for themselves. Uppers, downers, screamers, laughers; whatever helps you get through the night. The good news is you can source most of the classic ingredients easily enough in Qatar.

Before setting out for Qatar I stocked up on months of cold ’n’ flu tablets (the proper kind), and made my local GP write me a script saying I needed the pseudoephedrine contained within to stop me from dying. Even then, I was a little nervous as I went through customs that first time.

I shouldn’t have worried. Despite the horror stories you may have heard about Dubai travellers getting arrested for poppy-seed bagels, the Gulf has a surprisingly relaxed attitude to prescription drugs. You can purchase things like cold ’n’ flu tablets (the real kind) without any sort of script. Meanwhile, Viagra, diet pills, anxiety stuff and more can be readily acquired at most pharmacies, but you’ll need to get a local doctor’s script.

Since you won’t know any local doctors when you first arrive, or anything else about the country, it’s a good idea to stock up beforehand. Go see your local GP back home, explain that you’re going overseas and have them pre-emptively diagnose you for every disease and scenario that springs to mind.

Do you suffer from bad nerves, narcolepsy or steroid addiction? Not sure? Best to get some drugs prescribed just in case. Concerned the desert heat may cause performance anxiety? Maybe get yourself a Viagra prescription. Continue down this road until you have a suitcase full of drugs, and enough scripts to emerge alive and fully erect from an Ebola outbreak…

While this should keep you alive for the first few months, at some point your homegrown stash will deplete, and you’ll be forced to re-up. Here’s the thing; drug classifications vary wildly around the world, and while certain prescriptions meds are easily obtainable in Qatar, others do require a local GP’s hand-written note.

Anxiety drugs, uppers, ‘erectile dysfunction’ meds and suchlike, will, unfortunately, require a visit to a local GP. And look, for what’s it worth, the local medical service isn’t bad. As long as you have private insurance and avoid the main hospitals Qatar it’s pretty good at keeping people alive. It’s just, you know, boring and weird seeing a doctor in a foreign country.

If you’re desperate (and don’t want to see a local doctor for whatever reason) you can always try your luck with some back-alley pharmacies and your scripts from back home. Like most things in Qatar, there are official rules and then there’s the local ‘interpretations’.

Or if that isn’t clear enough, certain pharmacists will sell you whatever you ask for, whether or not you have the required local script. Or any script…

Getting drugs without a script

I thought that the more shoddy and rundown the pharmacy, the more likely they’d ignore the rules and sell me Xanax. But I quickly realised that the ghetto outlets weren’t much use. For starters, they’re pretty badly stocked, so most times they didn’t have anything good. Or worse, you’d find a pair of old ninjas (women in abayas and a hijab) behind the counter, and they would just judge the shit out of you while talking to each other in Arabic. Eventually, a nice shiny place in one of the local malls helped out. They said my script from overseas wasn’t valid, but they sold it to me when I made sad puppy dog eyes and asked if “there was anything else they could do”.

Phillip — Germany. Project manager.

You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.