I’ve heard this advice and have often wondered how it is supposed to work. Should my wife and I have matching locking medicine cabinets?
If you didn’t finish them within a month or two, the idea that your keeping them for 2 years is even in the same universe as “addiction” is laughable.
It took me 15 months to finish the 30 Flexerill I got in March of last year when my back went out so bad that even when I tried my best to stand up straight, I had a hard cant to the right. I only used 14 that time, then saved the rest for later repetitions. (I have a herniated disk in my lower back. They never really heal and I have some kind of ‘incident’ with it at least once a year.) Finally used the last one in June. Most of them only 1/2 a pill at a time and mostly so I could sleep.
I surrendered a bottle of diet pills that had the unfortunate side effect of Phen Rage to my (new) Doctor (the old one being the one who prescribed them and it being the reason he was no longer my doctor). He didn’t seem thrilled to take them, so I just left them in the room on my way out.
Are you in the US?
Red states don’t want you to bee insured, but Blue states are all over themselves to get everyone covered.
('Pubbies hate the black man and everything he’s done).
If you can’t afford subsidized insurance through ACA (“ACA” gets less hostility than “Obamacare”), a Blue State will probably cover you on Medic-aid (greatly expanded (with Fed $) under ACA - 'Pubbies won’t even take the money in front of them because it came from a Black Man).
My roomie (who tries to live on $700/mo Soc Sec) just got all new dentures at no cost. This is CA, the Bluest of the Blue (except for rural ares, where Alabama is their role model)
See healthcare.gov for a start.
GEt a detergent bottle, fill it halfway with used nasty kitty litter. Dump the pills out of the bottles and into the litter. Bonus points for being able to dump liquid meds in as well. Seal, shake well to mix. Toss into the trash with everything else.
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MODERATOR STEPS IN
usedtobe. No warning, but a caution to keep politics out of the answers in General Questions.
samclem, moderator
Not for this chronic migraine-sufferer. Opiates really don’t touch my migraines, some will actually make them worse (by increasing my nausea). I’ve been battling them for years and now am treated off-label with a cocktail of drugs at a neurological pain institute that specializes in migraine. This cocktail is used as a prophylactic and works fairly well but occasionally I will still get a migraine. When i do, I’ve found that the only abortive medication, prescription or otc, that provides me ANY relief is extra strength Excedrin.
I know this is an old thread, I came across as I’m in the same situation, have old pills from old hospital stays and scripts after as well as dental procedures.
First my 2 cents on a couple of points. If you were supposed to destroy or turn in unused narcs on day 11 after the 10 days you were supposed to take them all, why is the expiration date a year later? Would think the expiration date would be on day 11, and there would be a warning on the container that states “Illegal to possess and use after 10 days” or something to that effect, just as it states already states not to give to others.
As far as putting newer illegally gained product in an old script bottle, I would think there are ways of testing to show, yep, these pills are old, and prolly match the date on the bottle. I noticed you can tell just by looking at them, they don’t look in pristine condition. Also, the pill design and info stamped on the pill/capsule sometimes changes every so often. Would be prudent to Google Image search your pill and manufacturer and see if the pill looks the same as it did years ago. If different, put an additional note on the bottle that it is old stock.
I live in Ohio, and yes, still advising people not to flush drugs. If there ever is a situation such as traveling, you’re away from your health plan’s assigned PCP doctor, I want to be covered for pain in an emergency, as normally only yout PCP can prescribe. What if your 1000 miles away? Urgent care clinics can’t normally prescribe controlled substances. Also, what if there was as natural or even human caused disaster in my area? May be impossible to get to a doctor, emergency rooms may be overflowing or out of certain meds.
And as many others have pointed out, if you have meds from 10-20 years ago, chances are you’re not an addict or abuser. Again, would think if keeping your old meds was illegal, there would be a warning on the script bottle and literature. However, they keep silent on it.
Why would there be any connection at all between the expiration date and the legality? The expiration date, to the extent that it has any meaning at all, is a statement about chemistry, not about the law. If patient A is expected to need a medicine for 6 months, and patient B is expected to need the same medicine for a week, then A will get a prescription good for 6 months and B will get one good for a week, but they’ll both have the same expiration date, because they’re both the same medicine.
Another update is that more law enforcement agencies are participating in unused drug collection programs these days. My local, small-town police department does an organized collection (advertised in the paper) several times a year, but you may drop them off there anytime. You should never wash drugs down the drain.
“This could be totally different then the bathroom medicine cabinets that most people store their drugs,”
People still do this?? I’ve heard about this warning for decades now. We don’t even HAVE a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Yes there is a cabinet for towels , shaving, contact solutions, and dental care products but not for medicines. Medicines are in our bedroom or an up-high kitchen cabinet, someplace public or more secure for monitoring the kids or household visitors.
I was a case manager with the Dept. of Child Services, and routinely had to drug test parents. I frequently had positives come back for all sorts of controlled substances, so the drill was to confront them with the results, and ask for the prescription on the positives. If mom was prescribed hydrocodone six months ago and instructed to take it for 10 days after dental surgery, she was excused, because the script was valid for one year. We never looked at the instructions, we only looked at the expiration dates. If she produced a script that had expired prior to our testing window, it would go on her record that she failed a drug test, and the consequences would vary depending on her situation.
I remember a coworker once that was pulled for drug testing, and she had taken some illegally acquired pain pills, and tested positive. She produced a script from about 8 months earlier that was still valid, so she was cleared.
If I was going out on a home inspection and simply found expired prescriptions in your medicine cabinet or unsecured elsewhere, I would tell you to dispose of them, since they are a possible hazard to children, and no one could legally use them. I wouldn’t take them, nor call the police, but I would note to check for them on return visits. Now if you had them locked in your safe, along with your guns, I wouldn’t know the difference, since the assumption is that you’re taking steps to keep little hands out of things that could harm them.
I still don’t know if you could be prosecuted for being found in possession of pills from a script that is no longer valid, but if you’re generally law-abiding, and have no risk of being drug tested, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Let’s say you’re a senior citizen, never been arrested, never even jaywalked, and always obeyed all the rules. But then your phone rings, and your daughter has had her children removed by Child Protective Services, and they are calling to see if you would be willing to keep the children until further notice. You’re going to be drug tested before placement can occur. If you had a prescription for a controlled substance from five years ago that you didn’t finish, but you had a pain flare up last week, and you dipped back into the script, and now tested positive, CPS (DCS, etc.) would not be able to place with you, and your grandchildren may be headed for foster care. I’ve drug tested plenty of seniors that never dreamed anyone would ask them to drug test at this point in their lives, and at their station in society. So if you’re thinking of playing around with expired scripts, just be certain you have no risk of being asked for a fluid sample in order to do something you need or want.
Cite?
Seconded.
I have never, ever seen anything that states that a medication may only be used for x period of time.
The prescription itself might expire - don’t try taking that paper scrip for Vicodon from 4 months back and get it filled. The refills might expire - for some sleep aids, for example, you can’t get refills after 6 months; for others it’s 12 or maybe 24 months, even if you have refills available.
On the other hand, if you use it up too fast, you can’t get a refill early. If the scrip is written “take 1 a day” but doc verbally tells you “you can take 2 if you like”, and they give you 30, you can’t get a refill until most of those 30 days have passed.