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I just looked up Tramadol I paid the Vet $40 for 20 tabs. It's under $4 at the pharmacy
Prices on Tramadol are all over the place. One of my seniors is on two 50 mg tablets, three times a day so she needs 180 per month and the vet is only legally allowed to write a scrip for a 2 month supply. I go to Costco to get them and the latest cost was $16.82 for 360 pills. Same quantity at my local CVS is about 10 times that price.
My GI doctor prescribed some medicine for my ulcer which made me very nauseated. Unfortunately I got a 3 month supply because I figured how sick could a stomach medicine make me. I have 3 huge bottles of this stuff called Sucralfate. In the past I have had doctors prescribe meds that I wasn't able to tolerate. It seems such a waste to just throw them away when they could be donated to someone who can't afford their medication.
I know the logical reasons but we are just such a wasteful country sometimes.
I know everyplace is different but we can take ours to the local police station. Now what they do with them I have no idea.
Dunno if OP realizes it is against the law to give someone prescribed medication meant for the one named on the label. Donating it to anyone other than prescribed for would be illegal as well.
Here in my county they offer a free disposal of any expired, unwanted prescription drugs twice a year. And they'll accept them and dispose of them safely.
technically you are correct, but let's face it, most people do share their meds from time to time. And if discussed with the doctor who know knows? What you are referring to is just giving them to anyone with out checking, Do you really think if your best friend had a horrible headache and you had a few pills left from a head ache you had 2 weeks ago people wold not give their friend one or 2 pills?
My GI doctor prescribed some medicine for my ulcer which made me very nauseated. Unfortunately I got a 3 month supply because I figured how sick could a stomach medicine make me. I have 3 huge bottles of this stuff called Sucralfate. In the past I have had doctors prescribe meds that I wasn't able to tolerate. It seems such a waste to just throw them away when they could be donated to someone who can't afford their medication.
I know the logical reasons but we are just such a wasteful country sometimes.
I hear you about the waste, though as others have mentioned there are legitimate concerns regarding donating of medication that's been in an individual's custody. Still, it looks as though there are programs available, or in progress, for doing so contingent on tightly controlled regulations meant to ensure the safety, etc. of donated drugs, looks like the availability and regulations for these programs is on a state by state basis. Links below list some of this information, looks as though GA has a successful program, and I found information that legislation was in the works in FL for such a program, but I don't know where that stands at this time.
It looks as though common to all these programs is a rule that donated drugs cannot come directly from individuals to whom the drugs have been described, but may come from licensed individuals ( such as doctors, pharmacists), or licensed health care facilities such as hospitals, retail pharmacies.
In your case, as someone suggested, it's probably a long shot but if your sucralfate is in sealed containers, and you can attest that it's been stored under appropriate conditions and temperatures, you could contact a free clinic in your area, or see about returning it to your pharmacy, though they may toss it, not wanting to mess with the liability of recycling it to be used for patients.
Funny, I'm in exactly the same situation with a boatload of sucralfate I no longer need. I have been fighting bleeding ulcers since May and never did take them at the 4X/ day frequency prescribed by my doc, more like 3 times a day and down to 2x as I was convinced those ulcers MUST be going away but I wasn't sure.. Three EGDs later it seems they are ( with just inflammation, but no ulcers), and I don't need the sucralfate, though I had picked up a new three month supply that was autofilled at the pharmacy before my last EGD, and I have not opened them. Guess I could return them to the pharmacy but I hate to see them tossed. I've got way more than I need but may use them occasionally as the doc has suggested I take a sucralfate beforehand if I need to take an NSAID med.
I considered resurfacing our driveway with the stuff, LOL, but I don't want a pink driveway, even just till the first rainfall.
Not only is it illegal to redistribute medicines to other than the person prescribed for but it is also illegal and dangerous to flush them down the toilet particularly in places with public sewer systems.
When people die that had cancer or asthma or both; many of the medications left behind are worth hundreds of dollars each. In the case of asthma medication; who would use an inhaler that was used by somebody that died? That is also true of the other pills and medications; regardless of the cost. They did not save the patient, so in good conscious, could you give them to somebody else? One of the last things a hospice nurse does, after they pronounce the patient dead, is to physically dispose of the left over medication down the toilet. Technically it would be illegal to keep any medication that was not prescribed for you. By giving it to a 'friend' you could technically go to jail and your friend would be in trouble for using the medication.
They sure did this FAST with the morphine and Ativan. The rest of the meds, (BP etc) they could care less about. I disposed of them at the police dept.
When my MiL died hospice came in and opened up sealed, never-used bottles of pain killers, counted each one and took everything with them. Filled out forms about all this while they were doing it. I always wondered what happened to that stuff.
I have given a med I had to a girlfriend who was taking the exact same thing. My Dr. changed me to a diff. med. and I gave the other to my friend. I kinda knew it was illegal at the time, but she wasn't going to turn me in because she said she would use this. We trusted each other as much as 2 people could. And she was grateful.
When DH was in for an operation, the hospital gave him some sort of blood thinner to inject after he came home. He decided not to come home, went to rehab instead. They would not let him bring his own stuff in to use, they charged him again for theirs. So I asked the dr. and he said they would appreciate getting it to give to someone who could not afford it. These were sealed vial-type individual injection type meds. Now I am surprised they took them...but still think it was better than throwing them away. They were very appreciative.
If you were to ask over on the Preppers forum, you might hear that in the event "TSHTF"; medications will become a high-value barter item.
I had a friend who became an almost overnight, multi-million dollar success story in the tech industry. I would guarantee that every computer, of every poster, reading this thread, has that guys name on it somewhere.
He's still running amok out there but at his home here; he had a literal pharmacy built in with every type of pharmaceutical wonder known to man. His own personal stockpile. I would love to have my own IV & suture supplies & antibiotics ... I was jealous.
Was it illegal? Oh God, yes.
If you take them to a pharmacy, clinic, police, etc ... they will be wasted & destroyed. They will not utilize them.
technically you are correct, but let's face it, most people do share their meds from time to time. And if discussed with the doctor who know knows? What you are referring to is just giving them to anyone with out checking, Do you really think if your best friend had a horrible headache and you had a few pills left from a head ache you had 2 weeks ago people wold not give their friend one or 2 pills?
True, but people should be aware it's illegal. I was kept on the side of the road by a state trooper for hours combing through my stuff. It all ended up coming down to one muscle relaxer that was not in it's bottle. I don't remember why. Maybe because there was only one left and so I tossed it (Soma) into the bottle of flexiril.
I will never forget that experience. He was suspicious of my ibuprofen. It was orange. I said that is how costco makes them! (or they did at the time, IDK about now).
He could have taken me to jail for that one Soma and made that really clear. If it had been in a bottle with someone else's name, I would have gone to jail.
He did like a roadside lie detector I guess. Look me in the eye and tell me this was prescribed to you. They pulled at panels in my car like they thought I was a drug mule. It was wild. One does NOT want to have a controlled substance of any schedule on them unless it's in the bottle with one's name on it, that is for sure.
It is no different than having crack. If it's a controlled substance prescribed to someone else, it is just as illegal as drugs that are inherently illegal.
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