3 reasons to dispose of your unused prescription pills

Reason 1 – One  in five teens deliberately abuse prescription drug s each year.

Remember the painkiller prescription your doctor provided a few years ago when you pinched that nerve in your neck? Yeah, those pills are probably still hanging around in the back of your medicine cabinet…or are they?  The answer to that question might depend on whether or not you have a teen at home. National statistics show that 1 in 5 teens deliberately abuse prescription drugs each year. One in five. Let that sink in for a moment.  Here’s another surprising statistic – of Americans are taking at least one prescription medication, and over half are taking more than one. Undoubtedly there are a lot of drugs sitting around in medicine cabinets.

It’s no wonder why teens are prone to raiding the medicine cabinet. They won’t get busted buying illegal drugs. Most people wouldn’t recognize the pills even if they saw them so they’re not likely to get busted that way. Parents most likely have long forgotten about the pills and wouldn’t notice them missing..or they can sneak one or two from your active prescription. And, they are right there, instantly within reach.

Reason 2 – Potential for use of an invalid prescription

But it’s not just teens that are at risk. Consider this scenario (see similar real example here)…

A year ago you hurt your back and your doctor prescribed Vicodin for the pain. You took a few but soon found the pain was minimal and bearable and stopped taking the pills. Do you throw away the rest? Nope, that prescription cost you $50 and you don’t want to have to pay that again, so you set them in the back of the medicine cabinet just in case. Months go by, maybe a year or so and you reinjure your back while doing yard work. This time it’s not bad enough to see a doctor again (don’t want to pay that co-pay again), but the pain is there and you suddenly remember you had a prescription you didn’t finish out. You find you old pills, see that the prescription has expired but think you’ll only need one, maybe two to get through the next day or so. No big deal. So you take one. The next week, you’re selected for a drug test because your name was selected in your company’s random selection program. Time to freak out. Your job may be at risk. You’re prescription is no longer valid and you’re likely to test positive for opiates.

Why do so many people keep unused pills in their cabinet?

Up until 2014, people could only surrender their unused prescription pills (Vicodin, Hydrocodone, Codeine, Morphine and OxyContin, etc.) to local law enforcement or dispose of them their selves. Returning them to the pharmacy which dispensed them or any pharmacy for that matter was not allowed. For most people, making a special trip to the local police department isn’t exactly how they’d like to a weeknight. Furthermore, it can be risky to hand over the drug to someone else who it’s not prescribed to. Showing up at a local police station with a controlled substance in hand that wasn’t prescribed to you might come with some . So back in the cabinet it goes.

Reason 3 – Flushing them into the water supply has significant negative environmental impact.

The simplest method of disposing of unused pills is to simply crush or flush them – both harmful to the environment. Flushed pills dissolve and find their way into our streams and rivers and can even show up in drinking water for those downstream. A 2002 U.S. Geological study studied 130 rivers and found 80% contain pharmaceuticals – antibiotics, antidepressants, tranquilizers, hormones, pain killers and so on. Can’t flush it downstream? Back in the cabinet it goes.

DEA makes changes in 2014

Happily, in late 2014, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced that it would permit consumers to return unused prescription medications like opioid painkillers to pharmacies or mail them in to authorized collectors. Unfortunately news like this doesn’t generally make  front page news so odds are most people are entirely unaware.

Take action

Not all pharmacies are participating in the take back program. There are logistics to work out and potential liabilities they have to consider but there is a fantastic resource available on the web wherer you can simply enter your zip code a find participating locations here: