What do you do with old, left over prescriptions?
#23
Power Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Lowell, MA
Posts: 14,083
My girlfriend is director of nursing in a nursing home here in MA. The medications should be crushed or diluted in coffee grounds or kitty litter and placed in a sealed container. The nursing home has access to Bio-Hazard containers, but for the general public,I would handle them as above, then drop them off at a local center for disposal of hazardous wastes. Your local town hall should know when the disposal will take place, then you can drop them off, but don't flush them down the toilet.
#24
I'm the heritec (sp) here...I keep mine. Granted neither DH nor I are 'pill poppers' but you just never know when you need an antibiotic or pain pill for a couple of days. It takes a long time for the efficacy of the drug to actually degrade. You might need an extra pill or 2 to get the desired results but it beats spending time/$$ (at least for me) in the Dr. office. We have drugs that are several years old just for that purpose. Recently I squished my foot. Old script was about useless. Got new one from Doc. Ended up not taking it but you just never know...
#25
It is always important to properly dispose of meds, since they should only be taken by whom they were prescribed. However, sometimes if they are recently prescribed meds, depending on the laws and what meds, some hospitals or maybe hospice can sometimes accept them for re-use.
Last edited by caspharm; 11-24-2011 at 04:37 PM.
#26
I took medication that was still usable, not to mention expensive, that I would not be taking, into my neurologist. This was some very heavy duty pain meds given to me from after my cancer surgery. I told him I preferred to stick with my vicodin, which I thought was more useful than the oxy-ones. I dump nothing into my septic system because it goes right into our ground water. He asked if it was okay for him to pass them onto his patients who had trouble affording their meds. I told him it was fine.
Other drugs, including some older ones for the dogs, also gave to the doc so that he could safely dispose of. No antibiotics, because you are supposed to FINISH all of those. After having a CVS pharmacist steal drugs from me, I wouldn't turn in out of date asprin to them.
Just a word of warning, tho...if you are going to give old meds to your doc to dispose of, make sure they are going to do it responsibly. I know of one who took the meds and told his receptionist to throw them in the trash. Uh...no.
Other drugs, including some older ones for the dogs, also gave to the doc so that he could safely dispose of. No antibiotics, because you are supposed to FINISH all of those. After having a CVS pharmacist steal drugs from me, I wouldn't turn in out of date asprin to them.
Just a word of warning, tho...if you are going to give old meds to your doc to dispose of, make sure they are going to do it responsibly. I know of one who took the meds and told his receptionist to throw them in the trash. Uh...no.
#28
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Just move back to Chattanooga, TN.
Posts: 2,022
This is probably the last place to put your old med. The medicine breaks down and then the field lines disperse into the yard to enter into the watertable. Then that water ends up in the surface water through streams and ponds. Then the water effects the fish and wildlife. This is why the old methods of disposal has changed.
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pueblo, Co
Posts: 663
Walgreens has an envelope that is purchased to dispose of expired or unneeded prescriptions. I am not sure as to where you would mail this as I have not purchased one. I do plan on doing so as I have some old meds. And no you should NOT dispense your old meds to anyone in pain or ill. Very harmful.
#30
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bosque County, Texas
Posts: 2,709
For us personally it is a moot point as we are extremely conscientous to take all of each prescription. However, I seriously doubt that you could seperate the effect of a few thrown away prescription meds in a stream of water from the effect of the runoff of fields of fertilizer, herbisides, pestisides, etc from the fields of farmers and ranchers.
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