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Extra medications

mikeyarmo

Co-Founder
What do you do with your extra medications? I always seem to have extras left over whenever I change drugs, and I never know what to do with them. Do the medications expire? Can they be used later on just as effectively? Should they just be thrown out in the garbage?

I just seem to keep them always. They do not take up that much space, and since I do not know what to do with them they just seem to slowly build up. Anyone have any better suggestions on what to do with them?
 
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Donna

Guest
jyarmo said:
Sell them on ebay! ;)
Lol...wouldn't that be the answer to everything?! But, I think prescription drugs are not allowed to be sold on Ebay, and especially if they are already open.

It seems a shame that we have to have that problem. I have TONS of Asacol because I had just bought my 3 month supply and they took me off. When I asked if someone could use them from the patients that the doc took care of, he said he wasn't allowed to take meds from patients like that. Sooo...I asked how long does it last? Most drugs last for about a year. BUT...sometimes they tend to lose their strength. You can write to the manufacturer and ask them. The pharmacist will tell you to discard them.

My idea was to do "trades" thru forums like these. I can't stand to see drugs, especially expensive ones...go to waste like that when people out there need the drugs and can't afford them. I would be more than happy to send off the meds that I no longer need to someone who does need them. But I think there should be some form of disclaimer that you have to sign before you accept them/send them..."just in case" someone out there is disgusting enough to tamper with the meds. That way you know who to contact if something is wrong with them. It's an idea anyway.

Otherwise, I keep my meds for a year and toss. With 2 kids and flu seasons, my cabinet is full enough with Robitussin and such.
 

mikeyarmo

Co-Founder
While I definately understand the reasoning behind giving the unused medications to those who could use them now, I would not feel comfortable implementing such a system on this forum for numerous reasons. Firstly these medications require a prescribtion to get for a certain reason, and it is too easy to con you way into having others send you drugs you do not need over the internet (but I would have no idea why anyone would want to take these things recreationally). Also since we really do not know the effectiveness of aged meds, it may be more harmful than good to provide them for someone who needs medications.
 
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Donna

Guest
mikeyarmo said:
While I definately understand the reasoning behind giving the unused medications to those who could use them now, I would not feel comfortable implementing such a system on this forum for numerous reasons. Firstly these medications require a prescribtion to get for a certain reason, and it is too easy to con you way into having others send you drugs you do not need over the internet (but I would have no idea why anyone would want to take these things recreationally). Also since we really do not know the effectiveness of aged meds, it may be more harmful than good to provide them for someone who needs medications.
I couldn't agree more. And I wasn't trying to suggest using this particular forum for such a thing. I was just saying it was a shame that something like that couldn't be done (I should have worded it differently, my ooops:confused: ). It just bugs me that all these drugs are expensive and there are people out there who need them, but can't get them. I would think it would be illegal anyway to send them to people without a doc prescription. But there has to be someplace we can send them for people. I know I sent some meds with my uncle-in-law who took them over to Nigeria with him when he went over to help build with the Church. What they do with them once there is beyond me. But I know he wouldn't have used these drugs for anything, and they could only take ones that were still less than a year old. But beyond that, I have no idea where we could send off the meds. And it is a shame.
 
I have like 8 full bottles of Asacol because they were sending them to me Monthly cause i joined this stupid club through walgreens because its a medication id be on for a long time and I swear they send them faster than i can take them I had to cancel my auto matic re-fill because i was getting one every two weeks instead of every month it was crazy. with the way they were going i thought id be swimming in asacol. but I just made the bottom drawer in my bathroom the "asacol" drawer!! lol
 
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