# Illegal? \[Rx drugs\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514 "2014-02-04T20:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/21 "2014-02-09T16:47:34Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Also relevant would the circumstances under which they were even found. It’s not like the police just go around stopping people and checking their prescription bottles. How is it that the medications were found? What else was going on? That can affect whether they bother with charges or not, and how a hearing would go. Exactly. Buspar is not a controlled substance and has no abuse potential that I know of. It sounds like the OP’s girlfriend was pulled over for something else, gave the officer a reason to do a search, and found this. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/22 "2014-02-09T19:08:19Z")
It’s used for anxiety and ADHD, so someone might _try_ to abuse it, I guess. It’s extremely sketchy, however, that the (alleged) owner scratched their name off the label… ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/23 "2014-02-09T19:19:32Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > It’s used for anxiety and ADHD, so someone might _try_ to abuse it, I guess. It’s extremely sketchy, however, that the (alleged) owner scratched their name off the label… Agreed. I mean it’s wholly circumstantial, but :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/24 "2014-02-09T20:15:26Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I was unaware of this. Can you cite a federal statute or regulation that makes it so? I can’t find any reference to it either, looks like I was repeating bullshit hah. I was told this by a pharmacist to explain that while OTC stuff might be sold without RX, it still could only by sold by pharmacies. So it looks like BS. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/25 "2014-02-09T20:19:15Z")
> [@JacksMom](#): > > It sounds to me like the issue here is that the name was scratched off the prescription bottle, which retired LEO husband says is a red flag. People don’t, as a routine practice, scratch their names off their own medication bottles. > > It isn’t a problem to pick up meds for granny and take them to her. Although SO says he would be suspicious if you still had granny’s Lortab in your car a week after it was filled. > > FWIW, I used to have a prescription for Lidocaine (it’s an infrequently used treatment for cluster headaches). Although I know it is technically illegal, I had a bottle without a pharmacy label because my doctor gave it to me. (It’s expensive because the pharmacy charges a gazillion dollars to compound it despite the fact that it comes already mixed). So, cut to teenaged kids thinking ‘ooh lidocaine! That sounds perfect for these blisters on my hands I got playing xbox!’ Not so perfect when the house is searched because daughter’s boyfriends brother is a thief and lidocaine is found in boyfriend’s room. We spoke with the arresting officers, and their view was cocaine, lidocaine, same thing. Plus, he had a prescription drug that wasn’t prescribed to him. Boyfriend wasn’t eligible for any kind of diversionary programs that would allow this FELONY to eventually be expunged, since he tested negative for drugs. Boyfriend just finished his five years of probation, and he and my daughter have spent thousands on probation fees and drug testing, not to mention the lost job opportunities because of the ‘drug conviction’. What a mess. > > **TL;DR** Don’t get caught with somebody else’s medication. Especially when you’re in the company of sketchy people. Are you seriously claiming your daughter’s boyfriend got a felony conviction and five years probation for possession of lidocaine?!:dubious: There are OTC cremes and sprays containing lidocaine. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/26 "2014-02-09T22:54:18Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Are you seriously claiming your daughter’s boyfriend got a felony conviction and five years probation for possession of lidocaine?!:dubious: There are OTC cremes and sprays containing lidocaine. I agree. Lidocaine is a topical numbing agent. Did you mean some other similar drug name? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/27 "2014-02-09T23:00:54Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Are you seriously claiming your daughter’s boyfriend got a felony conviction and five years probation for possession of lidocaine?!:dubious: There are OTC cremes and sprays containing lidocaine. > [@Qwisp](#): > > I agree. Lidocaine is a topical numbing agent. Did you mean some other similar drug name? From a quick Googling, it seems lidocaine is used to cut street drugs like cocaine or heroin. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/28 "2014-02-10T00:25:20Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > From a quick Googling, it seems lidocaine is used to cut street drugs like cocaine or heroin. Point being…what? So are a number of otherwise innocuous substances. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/29 "2014-02-10T00:33:41Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Point being…what? So are a number of otherwise innocuous substances. But finding a bottle without the required pharmacy prescription label, in the possession of someone who has been known to be up to no good, is another matter entirely than finding a canister of baby powder or cornstarch. ---
**Author:** ![JacksMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@JacksMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacksMom)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/30 "2014-02-10T01:27:29Z")
Sorry so long to reply. I am absolutely _claiming_ that my daughter’s BF was treated as a serious drug offender because he was sharing a room with a serious drug offender and had someone else’s medication on his person. Yes, he did and it was pretty traumatic for him since he’s the ‘good kid’ in a family full of dopers and thieves. I would never have believed this could happen, but I know both the arresting officer and the investigator in the DAs office that was working the three brothers’ cases. Apparently they were trying to tie together my lidocaine, which had only the manufacturer’s label and not a pharmacy label, with the other drugs and stolen items found in the house. Despite many conversations with both of them, they insisted it was ‘hinky’. Boyfriend lived across the street from us, and my daughter was at his house when the Sheriff’s Dept came to search the house. They kept her out in the yard for quite a while. I’m not sure why she didn’t own up to it belonging to her. I think they both thought it was no big deal since a lidocaine is found in OTC preparations. This was not OTC strength, and it made all the difference in the world. If it had been a simple matter of finding some lidocaine on a traffic stop or some other innocuous encounter, I don’t think anything would have been made of it. It was the circumstances in which it was found, being that BF lived in the same house as his two loser step brothers. I feel responsible for it, because it’s been quite a hardship for two kids starting out and it never would have happened if I hadn’t been too cheap to spend $200 for compounding. Or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered a damn bit since they still would have been in possession of a ‘stolen’ prescription. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/31 "2014-02-10T01:30:12Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > But finding a bottle without the required pharmacy prescription label, in the possession of someone who has been known to be up to no good, is another matter entirely than finding a canister of baby powder or cornstarch. Yeah, but they still have to prove that you were using it for that purpose beyond a reasonable doubt. Just like the OP’s story, I don’t think we have all the information here. Both of these stories seem to be given second hand, and both seem like the type of altered stories that people often give to minimize their guilt. Not altered enough to necessarily be a lie, but enough to leave out pertinent information. Even if it is a crime to have a prescription drug in your possession when it belongs to someone else, “drug possession” surely is not that crime. Everything I’ve seen on that says it involves specific prohibited substances. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/32 "2014-02-10T02:07:25Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > From a quick Googling, it seems lidocaine is used to cut street drugs like cocaine or heroin. Especially coke, I imagine; lidocaine produces a similar topical numbing, but is devoid of any euphoriant/stimulant effects, or at least to any noticeable degree. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514/33 "2014-02-10T03:10:04Z")
I can’t find lidocaine on any drug schedule, you can check here: [http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=1305](http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=1305) I guess it could be scheduled in some state, or maybe I missed it. Is it possible it was compounded with another scheduled drug maybe? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-rx-drugs/680514.md?page=1)