Time to spring-clean your medicine cabinet

When’s the last time you’ve cleaned out your medicine cabinet?  Not just throwing away empty Band-Aid boxes, but really going through everything stored in it?  If it’s been awhile, likely it’s time to sort through and dispose of expired and unused medications sitting there possibly for years.

To get a good start on spring-cleaning your medicine cabinet, here are some tips helping you safely dispose of old and unwanted medications:

·      Take stock of what’s in the medicine cabinet

Start by bringing everything out of the cabinet and going through each item one-by-one. Most people generally have at least one or more medications that have long-since expired. You may think that your overstuffed medicine cabinet is harmless, but, according to the FDA, most abused prescription drugs come from family and friends with opioids being the biggest culprit. Sort the medication into piles, according to what you’re using and not using right now.

·      Check dates and dosages

Expiration dates are on medications for a reason – to calculate drug stability which is a measure indicating when the drug may stop working to its full effect. All medication that has expired should be cleared out, ready to dispose of.  All current, unexpired medication can go back on the shelf. 

·      Discard properly

It is not advisable to simply throw away expired medications into the trash.  There are various organizations and agencies that offer locations to dispose of medications; take advantage of these places to safely dispose of expired drugs.  If you’re not sure where to dispose properly expired medications, ask your pharmacist for locations (many pharmacies have collection boxes on site). If you are unable to find a site that takes back expired meds, ask your pharmacist or contact your local health department about guidelines for drug disposal.  If there are no specific local rules for your meds, you can do the following in order to throw medications away safely:

·      Crush and pour pills and capsules into a sealable bag. Fill the bag with unappetizing and unappealing materials – for example, kitty litter, coffee grounds or dirt. This can discourage people who may be looking for drugs in trash.

·      Remove and tear all personally identifiable information from bottles and packaging to make it unreadable. This helps patients keep their medical information private.