How And Where To Dump Your Leftover Drugs — Responsibly

(By Emily Bazar for Kaiser Health News)

Opioids like Vicodin and Percocet are commonly prescribed to dull pain after medical procedures and to treat chronic pain. They also commonly languish in medicine cabinets, sometimes for years, making easy pickings for someone with an addiction.

The consequences can be deadly: More than 165,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids between 1999 and 2014, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I’m guilty of keeping them too long myself. Until last month, when I turned over a freezer bag full of unwanted and expired medications on the twice-a-year National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, I had a bottle left over from a dental procedure three years ago. Read article here……

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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