Friday, April 19th is National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day. | ||||||||||
Finding what you need is a lot easier once you’ve reduced the clutter. But there’s a more important reason for cleaning out and properly disposing of unused and unneeded medications properly; they’re dangerous! When you have young children in the house, it’s important to keep medications safely locked away. With teens and even tweens in the home, prescription meds pose a different type of danger. Older kids understand that medicine can be dangerous, but too often they are intrigued by them. Even if your kids are trustworthy, are you certain that all of their friends are? It’s altogether too easy for a teen to use the parents’ bathroom at a friend’s house and swipe a bottle from the medicine cabinet. It’s best to get rid of everything you don’t need. | ||||||||||
| Clean it out! | ||||||||||
Decades ago, patients were told to flush unneeded medications down the toilet. But since then, we’ve learned that when flushed, the drugs flow into our water supply. There is contaminates our drinking water and harms the ocean wildlife. When drugs are thrown in the trash, they end up in landfills, leach into the ground and contaminate the soil. | ||||||||||
So how do we dispose of old prescriptions safely? | ||||||||||
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) holds National Drug Take Back Day twice each year: in April and again in October. Conveniently, the next one is Saturday, April 27th, and there is a take back location right in your town. | ||||||||||
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If you miss Take Back Day, there’s another solution: drug deactivation packets. Under the brand names DisposeRX or Deterra, drug deactivation solutions come in the form of a small packet containing a harmless white powder. Following the instructions on the packet, add water to the bottle of unused pills, pour powder from the packet inside, cap it and shake. The powder and water combine to form a gel that encapsulates the drugs and renders the active ingredients in the drugs inactive. Many major pharmacy chains, as well as some independent pharmacies carry drug deactivation packets; just ask your Pharmacist. | ||||||||||
