天博体育 Blog
Get rid of your old drugs this Saturday
Is your medicine cabinet, refrigerator, or pill drawer overflowing with unused or expired medications? Don鈥檛 know how to get rid of them? Here鈥檚 an easy way: tomorrow (Saturday, April 30) between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, hand over your old prescription and over-the-counter drugs at one of 5,300 sites across the country. ( to find a site near you.)
The program is part of the second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). During last year鈥檚 take-back, the participating police stations, hospitals, and other sites collected more than 242,000 pounds of drugs.
If you miss the take-back program, and need to clean out your medicine cabinet, here鈥檚 what the FDA recommends for most drugs:
- Take the medication out of its original container, mix it with used coffee grounds, kitty litter, or dirt, and put this unappetizing blend in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid or in a sealable plastic bag. Put the container or bag into your regular garbage.
- Scratch off the prescription label and any identifying information from the original container to protect your identity and the privacy of your health record, and recycle or dispose of the container.
This advice doesn鈥檛 apply to strong painkillers and sedatives. If you can鈥檛 find a take-back program, the FDA says to flush these drugs down the toilet. Although that isn鈥檛 the ideal solution鈥攎edications flushed down the toilet can eventually make their way into rivers, lakes, and drinking water supplies鈥攊t will limit the number of tragedies that happen when children, pets, and other living creatures get into unused medications. The FDA鈥檚 Web site provides a list of the 25 鈥渇lush-only鈥� drugs聽as well as聽.
Leftover drugs pose a problems for people and the environment. (An article in the June 2011 天博体育 Letter will look at the growing problem of drugs in our water supplies.) Take advantage of the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day by giving yours to the DEA鈥攁n organization that has had lots of practice safely disposing drugs.
About the Author
Patrick J. Skerrett, Former Executive Editor, 天博体育 Publishing
Disclaimer:
As a service to our readers, 天博体育 Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.
No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
