Should You Save or Get Rid of Old Medication?

Open your medicine cabinet. Are there many bottles of pills or other medications you no longer take? If so, it’s about time to get rid of them. Not only are they taking up lots of storage space and contributing to the clutter, but they can also pose a danger to pets and kids, who could unwittingly ingest the medication. In this article, we’ll explain how to get rid of old, expired, and unused medications and why it’s important.

Why should you dispose of unused and old medication? 

Getting rid of unused OTC and prescription medication is important for your own safety, as well as the safety of others. 

 

You may have a few bottles of the same medication lying around. If you’re taking several types of medications, it’s easy to get confused and take the wrong one. You may also end up reaching for an old or possibly expired bottle by accident, which can be dangerous. Not only are old or expired medications less potent and effective than fresh ones, but they may also be dangerous to ingest. 

 

It’s useful to go through all of your prescriptions with your doctor from time to time and make sure that you’re not taking anything extra. Of course, you can prevent this from happening in the first place, if you get in the habit of disposing of old prescriptions on time.

Keeping old medication may also pose a hazard to others. Kids, pets, or even other adults in your household may take the wrong medication by mistake. 

 

In addition, improperly stored or discarded medication can end up in the wrong hands. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who spoke to Healthline, “What people fail to realize, or may not even know, is that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends.” Such medications as fentanyl patches or other pain medications may end up abused or sold to others, even if they are expired or thrown away in the trash. So, it’s very important to discard these potentially dangerous meds properly. 

 

Lastly, storing old medication is usually simply unnecessary. Even seemingly useful medication like leftover antibiotics should not be kept at home. Antibiotics usually target specific bacterial infections and should be taken for several days for you to see any effect. Therefore, keeping one or two leftover pills is kind of pointless.

How to Dispose of Old or Unused Medication

The safest way to get rid of unused or expired medication, both OTC and prescription, is to drop it off at a drug take-back location. Periodically, the DEA conducts a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, where individuals can drop off any unused or expired medication at one of the many locations in the country. The medication is incinerated in a secure facility, ensuring that any hazardous chemicals are completely destroyed. 

 

There are more than 11,000 permanent collection sites across the US. Many local pharmacies conduct Take Back programs for safe medication disposal as well. Your pharmacist should be able to direct you to the nearest safe disposal location. 

 

If you don’t have a safe medication drop off site near you, the FDA recommends getting rid of the medication in the following way:

 

1. Flushing medicines down the toilet. 

Potentially dangerous medicines that are on the FDA flush list can be disposed of by emptying the bottle of medication into the toilet bowl and flushing it down the drain. Not all medications can be flushed safely, but the FDA has a flush list of medications on their website, which you can access here - FDA flush list. Don’t worry about the environmental impact of flushing medications down the drain; the FDA conducted a study accessing such risks and found that they are negligible. 

 

2. Throwing medicines in the trash. 

Non-flushable medications can be disposed of through household trash. Avoid simply throwing a bottle of prescription medication in the trash can. This is dangerous because your personal information is listed on the bottle, and could potentially be abused. So, first things first, scratch off all the personal information. It’s also advised to mix the medicine with something inedible and unpalatable, such as kitty litter, used coffee grounds, or dirt, before throwing it in the trash. This prevents the medication from being stolen or abused.

FDA’s Flush List for Certain Medicines

If you received specific disposal instructions from your healthcare provider (e.g., doctor, pharmacist) for your unused or expired medicine, you should follow those instructions to dispose of your medicine. The best disposal option is to find a drug take back location, which may be found in retail, hospital, or clinic pharmacies; and/or law enforcement facilities.

If you don’t have a drug take back location near you, check the FDA’s flush list to see if your medicine is on the list. Medicines on the flush list are those (1) sought-after for their misuse and/or abuse potential and (2) that can result in death from one dose if inappropriately taken.  If children, adults, or pets in your home accidentally or intentionally ingest, touch, misuse, or abuse a medicine on the flush list, they can suffer serious consequences including death. An example of a medicine on the flush list is fentanyl transdermal system (also known as a fentanyl patch), which contains an opioid.  If a drug take-back program is not available, flushing medicines on the flush list helps keep everyone in your home safe by making sure these powerful and potentially dangerous medicines (when used inappropriately) are not accidentally or intentionally ingested, touched, misused, or abused.

Remember, don’t flush your medicine unless it is on the flush list.

Drug Name	Examples of Products on the Flush List1
Drugs That Contain Opioids
Any drug that contains the word “buprenorphine”	BELBUCA, BUAVAIL, BUTRANS, SUBOXONE, SUBUTEX, ZUBSOLV
Any drug that contains the word “fentanyl”	ABSTRAL, ACTIQ, DURAGESIC, FENTORA,ONSOLIS
Any drug that contains the word “hydrocodone” or “benzhydrocodone”	APADAZ, HYSINGLA ER, NORCO, REPREXAIN, VICODIN, VICODIN ES, VICODIN HP, VICOPROFEN, ZOHYDRO ER
Any drug that contains the word “hydromorphone”	EXALGO
Any drug that contains the word “meperidine”	DEMEROL
Any drug that contains the word “methadone”	DOLOPHINE, METHADOSE
Any drug that contains the word “morphine”	ARYMO ER, AVINZA, EMBEDA, KADIAN, MORPHABOND ER, MS CONTIN, ORAMORPH SR
Any drug that contains the word “oxycodone”	CODOXY, COMBUNOX, OXADYDO (formerly OXECTA), OXYCET, OXYCONTIN, PERCOCET, PERCODAN, ROXICET, ROXICODONE, ROXILOX, ROXYBOND, TARGINIQ ER, TROXYCA ER, TYLOX, XARTEMIS XR, XTAMPZA ER
Any drug that contains the word “oxymorphone”	OPANA, OPANA ER
Any drug that contains the word “tapentadol”	NUCYNTA, NUCYNTA ER
Drugs That Do Not Contain Opioids
Any drug that contains the term “sodium oxybate” or “sodium oxybates”	XYREM, XYWAV
Diazepam rectal gel	DIASTAT, DIASTAT ACUDIAL
Methylphenidate transdermal system	DAYTRANA

^{1 Links in the flush list direct you to specific disposal instructions in each medicine’s labeling (the labeling generally represents the last FDA-approved labeling at the time this webpage was updated). To see the most recently approved labeling see www.fda.gov/drugsatfda or to see the most current labeling see FDALabel at https://nctr-crs.fda.gov/fdalabel/ui/search.}

Impact of flushing medicines on the environment

FDA recognizes that the recommendation to flush a few specific medicines when a take back program is not readily available raises questions about the impact of the medicines on the environment and the contamination of surface and drinking water supplies.

In an effort to address this concern, FDA staff published a paper entitled "Risks Associated with the Environmental Release of Pharmaceuticals on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ‘Flush List’". This paper evaluates the environmental and human health risks associated with the flushing of 15 active ingredients found in these medicines. FDA concluded that these medicines present negligible risk to the environment. However, some additional data would be helpful for confirming this finding for some of the medicines.

FDA believes that the known risk of harm, including toxicity and death, to humans from accidental exposure to medicines on the flush list far outweighs any potential risk to human health and the environment from flushing these unused or expired medicines. Remember only flush medicines on the flush list if a take-back option is not readily available. FDA will continue to conduct risk assessments as a part of our larger activities related to the safe use and disposal of medicines.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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