Getting Rid of Temptation: The Proper Disposal of Prescription Medications

What does a drug dealer look like? Most of us picture the seedy-looking middle-age thug with sunken eyes and heavy facial hair who lurks in dark alleys and feels no remorse for destroying innocent young lives. But the face of the local drug dealer has changed in recent years. Now, you may see the sweet face of 11-year-old Jimmy who lives down the street. More disturbing, you may even see yourself.

Instead of sneaking out to meet the neighborhood drug dealer, today's teens are taking a few short steps to their parents' medicine cabinets or to their friend's locker at school to get high. As more adults turn to prescription drugs to solve life's problems, and more children are being treated with stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, it has become a relatively simple task for teens to find, steal, or purchase prescription drugs.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that prescription drugs of all kinds are now more popular than most illicit drugs like Ecstasy, cocaine, and methamphetamine. According to the 2005 Partnership survey, more than three in five teens can easily get prescription painkillers from their parents' medicine cabinets. And reports have been released in states across the country of teens selling their own prescription medications to classmates.

According to SAMHSA's 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, six percent of youths aged 12 to 17 had tried prescription drugs for recreational use in the past month. More than 55 percent of prescription pain killer abusers reported that they obtained the drugs from a friend or relative for free.

The most commonly abused prescription drugs include depressants like Valium and Xanax, stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, and opioids like Vicodin and OxyContin Vicodin has become particularly popular with teens, according to a study by the University of Michigan in 2005, which found that nearly 10 percent of 12th-graders had used it in the previous year. About 5.5 percent said they had used OxyContin. These drugs can be dangerous, addictive, and potentially lethal when taken in large doses or in combination with other drugs or alcohol. The last thing a parent wants to do is make it easy for teens to abuse prescription drugs.

Because of the numerous dangers of abusing prescription drugs and their easy accessibility, the government has updated its federal guidelines for proper disposal of expired or unused medicines. Unfortunately, throwing away prescriptions isn't enough. A curious teen is not above rifling through the trash to find their next high. The current federal guidelines for proper disposal of prescription medications are as follows:

• Take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers and throw the containers in the trash.
• Mix prescription drugs with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and put them in impermeable, non-descript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags.
• Flush prescription drugs down the toilet only if the label or accompanying patient information specifically instructs doing so. The Food and Drug Administration advises that the following drugs be flushed down the toilet instead of thrown in the trash: Actiq, Daytrana Transdermal Patch, Duragesic Transdermal System, OxyContin tablets, Avinza capsules, Baraclude tablets, Reyataz capsules, Tequin tablets, Zerit for Oral Solution, Meperidine HCl tablets, Percocet, Xyrem, and Fentora.
• Take advantage of community pharmaceutical take-back programs that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for proper disposal.

Prescription drugs are only safe for the person named on the label. A doctor has examined the patient and prescribed the right dose of medication for a specific medical condition. The individual has been advised about how to take the medication, including side effects, health risks, and foods, medications, or other substances to avoid while taking the drug.

Just as families make time for spring cleaning or the annual garage sale, parents should plan on cleaning out their medicine cabinets at least once a year. Leaving unused medications around can lead to unnecessary temptation for your teen. By disposing of old medications, you make it that much harder for your children to become the new face of the neighborhood drug dealer.