Defending Drug Charges and Prescription Medication Seizures in Turkey: Personal Use vs. International Trafficking
Being intercepted at Turkish airport border control for carrying lawfully prescribed psychiatric medications, wellness products, or personal substances is an acute legal emergency, as customs authorities and public prosecutors routinely classify cross-border possession as international narcotics trafficking under Article 188 of the Turkish Penal Code rather than personal possession under Article 191. While commercial trafficking charges carry catastrophic mandatory sentences of twenty to thirty years of imprisonment tried before the…
