Medications do a world of good when you need them. But unused medications left gathering dust in the medicine cabinet or just flushed down a toilet can be unintentionally dangerous.
Safe disposal of prescription drugs, especially painkillers, is a hot topic these days.
Unused medications pose a threat to small children who might take them thinking they’re candy or something harmless. They also might be too tempting to teens looking to experiment, cautions the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And they’re a target for thieves looking for quick cash or a quick fix.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sponsors National Prescription Drug Take-Back Days every year in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, but if you don’t want to wait, or there isn’t a convenient take-back site near you, here are five options the FDA recommends:
- Return the unused meds to the pharmacy where you bought them. They’ll safely dispose of them for you.
- Think twice about just flushing the medications down the toilet. Some studies have shown troubling amounts of painkillers, hormone-based medications and other drugs in drinking and groundwater.
- Put the drugs in with your regular household trash, but make them unpalatable. Mix them in with cat litter, used coffee grounds or other nasty stuff that anyone digging through the trash won’t want to touch, then put the whole mixture in a plastic baggie and seal it. Peel the labels off prescription drug bottles or scratch the name out with a pen or marker so no one will know what the bottle contained.
- Do not crush pills. It makes some painkillers more potent and more attractive to thieves.
- Do not give them to a friend. Medications are expensive, and it can be tempting to give them to a friend or family member who needs them, but doing so is dangerous and in most cases, it’s also illegal, authorities warn.
To learn more about drug take-back days, visit www.dea.gov.