Posted: 2/20/2003 1:40:57 PM EDT
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Ok, something I know almost nothing about. I had hand surgery a little over a year ago. I was prescribed a huge bottle of Vicodin. I only used about 1/3 of them. Anyway, I was cleaning-out the bathroom and found the bottle. Im guessing that they are still good. Is it illegal for me to have kept them? Or should I throw them into the terlit? It would be nice to be able to hold-on to them, but if its a bad idea, out they go. BTW, Vicodin is the only pain-reliever that has ever worked for me. Aspirin, Ibuprofin, CoTylenol and stuff like does nothing for me. And NO! I will not give them to anyone else to "dispose of". |
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If they were prescribed to you, there shouldn't be any problem keeping them. When my Mom passed away, the coroner confiscated all the narcotic drugs prescribed to my Mom for her cancer. She explained that since they were prescribed for my Mom, they couldn't legally remain in the house. You're fine. Keep 'em. |
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It's illegal only for you to transfer them to another person or to use them in a manner not in accordance with the prescription label. If it says (let me take a guess) "Take one tablet every 8 hours as needed for pain", then you can take up to 3 per day for pain that in your estimation merits taking a Vicodin. Once the bottle is empty you can get one or more refills if the label says so. Once you are out of refills you have to talk to your doctor to get more. |
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Unless you think you might have a problem with narcotics there is no reason not to keep them. I keep some in my emergency medical kit. If you're ever in a situation where painkillers are beneficial and no doctor is around it's a nice thing to have. I carry them on backpacking trips. |
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Ref the refill...there's often a time limit put on scheduled meds (the "good stuff"[;)]), and it may be outside the "window" to get more. Had the same situation after by appendectomy. I only took one when I wrenched my bcak...noticed a decrease in effectivness after a year. Expect some breakdown/decrease in potency. Potential for the breakdown process to generate "unwanted" compounds (potentialy harmful)? Yes, but I don't what those would be, or how long it would take. Tango7 |
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Thanks for the low-down! I was only concerned about the legal aspect of keeping the (long) after I had a viable use for them. So far, in my 37 years of existance, Vicodin is the only narc that actually works. Like I said, OTC and codeine-based narcs do nothing for me. If I had a drug problem, I would have REMEMBERED that I had them =) |
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Well, as far as are they illegal for holding on to them that long, you should see most people's medicine cabinets. My dad has pills in his that were given to him about 9 yrs ago. Vic's are addictive, so they should be used on a "when needed" basis. Here is the Physicians Desktop Reference, in case you want to look it up and read more info on it: [url]http://www.pdr.net/HomePage_template.jsp[/url] WAS |
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Quoted: ... If I had a drug problem, I would have REMEMBERED that I had them =) If you had a drug problem you would have eaten them a long time ago. I was also thinking of other kinds of "drug problems", like a roommate/kid/neighbor who steals your drugs. But if you had one of those you wouldn't have the Vicodins right now either. They work quite well on me, and unlike codeine they don't throw my GI tract into a tizzy. |
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Be Goddam careful if you are under ANY kind of zero tolorance rules.(DOT, military, etc) The Med Officer can be a real SOB about things like that. (He can try and say 'That was specifically issued for a specific and long cured injury') I cannot nail it down, but there's some tale going around that someone got clobbered using an out of date script and lost his license. Keep them, but exercise proper judgement. |
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Quoted: They work quite well on me, and unlike codeine they don't throw my GI tract into a tizzy. YES! Thats what I HATED about CoTylenol...I got NASTY stomach-aches from that crap when I had my Wisdom Teeth removed...I mean it hurt BAD! Piccolo...I absolutely understand your point! I was just thinking that they would be a nice addition to my personal basic first aid kit. |
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Quoted: I had hand surgery a little over a year ago. I was prescribed a huge bottle of Vicodin. I only used about 1/3 of them. Anyway, I was cleaning-out the bathroom and found the bottle. Im guessing that they are still good. Is it illegal for me to have kept them? It depends on what state you live in. Vicodin is a narcotic analgesic with a high incidence of abuse. It's a controlled substance both federally and at the state level. In any state, you can possess controlled substances which youre were prescribed, as long as they are used as directed. However. Say the doctor gave you 10 pills and said take one a day for ten days. On day eleven if you have any pills left you are possessing the pills (controlled substance) outside legal protection of the prescription. If you are storing the Vicodin in your home, in the Rx bottle with your name on it, I would not worry about it. If you are carrying them around in your pants pocket in a ziplock baggy, or driving around with them in your glove box in an altoids tin or 35mm film canister, you're probubly going to jail. |
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Quoted: It depends on what state you live in. Vicodin is a narcotic analgesic with a high incidence of abuse. It's a controlled substance both federally and at the state level. It is not a "narcotic" and the operative laws are at the Federal level, not the state. It is a "narcotic" only if the term is used incorrectly, which it usually is by government authorities. In any state, you can possess controlled substances which youre were prescribed, as long as they are used as directed. However. Say the doctor gave you 10 pills and said take one a day for ten days. On day eleven if you have any pills left you are possessing the pills (controlled substance) outside legal protection of the prescription. First, I have never heard of any case where a person had legitimate leftovers from a single prescription and got prosecuted. I did hear of one case where a man was rousted by the Tennessee cops who took several bottles of medicine, claiming that he had obtained the prescriptions illegally. What was the substance of their accusation? The guy claimed he was in pain. The cops claimed he could not be in pain, since he had lost the lower half of his body (including most of his pelvis) in an auto accident. But, the Vicodin bottles usually say to take them "every four hours as needed". Thus, there is no ten day limit. Limits like that are usually found in antibiotics, where it is important to take the full dose, not pain killers where it is up to the patient to decide. If anyone questions it, tell them the pain is sporadic and you are following the doctor's directions to take them "as needed." If you are storing the Vicodin in your home, in the Rx bottle with your name on it, I would not worry about it. If you are carrying them around in your pants pocket in a ziplock baggy, or driving around with them in your glove box in an altoids tin or 35mm film canister, you're probubly going to jail. I know people who carry them in other containers all the time. It is a bit of a pain in the ass to carry around a huge bottle all day when you are only going to need a couple of pills. Cops may question it (but cases are pretty rare), but all you have to do is prove that you have a prescription. If it becomes an issue, explain the situation and ask them to call your doctor to check if they don't believe you. If they fail to do that, sue them for false arrest. Undertreatment of pain, and persecution of patients in pain, and doctors who treat it is a huge problem in this country. You are entitled to have adequate medication and to carry it with you in a comfortable manner. Don't put up with any crap over legitimate medications. |
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Wolfman, A "Narcotic" is any opiate drug, including sythetic opiates. Hydrocodone, the controlled substance in Vicodin, is a sythetic opiate. You may have never heard of a person being prosecuted for possession of prescription left overs, but it happens. A one time prescription for a controlled substance does not give you life time license to use the drugs recreationaly. I regularly arrest for B&P 4060-Possess controlled substance without a prescrition, or H&S11350 Possess Narcotic Drug, depending on quantity and which Controlled substance the suspect is in possession of. A one time prescription for a controlled substance does not give you life time license to use the drugs recreationaly. Recreational or even lawfull users of Rx Controlled substances may also find themselves arrested for CPC 647f Drunk in public or CVC 23152(a)&(B) Driving under the influence/Drugs. My advice is take the controlled substance only as directed. Throw the leftovers away when you have recovered from the one time, and long since resolved, ailment the controlled substance was prescribed for. Do not combine them with alcohol and do not drive while taking them. |
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Quoted: Wolfman, You may have never heard of a person being prosecuted for possession of prescription left overs, but it happens. A one time prescription for a controlled substance does not give you life time license to use the drugs recreationaly. Who said anything about using them recreationally? Pain can be chronic and ongoing, meaning that you don't have it now but it might return later. Just FYI, I know lots of people who take Vicodin on an ongoing basis, sporadically, and some keep their prescriptions a long time between refills - much longer than the ten days or so that they would last if they were taken every four hours. I regularly arrest for B&P 4060-Possess controlled substance without a prescrition, or H&S11350 Possess Narcotic Drug, depending on quantity and which Controlled substance the suspect is in possession of. Let me guess. In every case, the person never had a prescription at all, or the prescription was not in their name. Correct? Ever had a case where someone was busted because they failed to throw out the last five pills of a legitimate prescription in their name? A one time prescription for a controlled substance does not give you life time license to use the drugs recreationaly. Failing to throw them away doesn't make you guilty of a crime, either. (At least it shouldn't if your laws and enforcement are even halfway rational.) (I know, stupid thing to say about drug laws that never were really rational to begin with.) If it did, most of America would wind up in jail. Recreational or even lawfull users of Rx Controlled substances may also find themselves arrested for CPC 647f Drunk in public or CVC 23152(a)&(B) Driving under the influence/Drugs. That's a different issue. My advice is take the controlled substance only as directed. All the prescriptions for morphine and similar drugs that I have seen say "take every XX hours as needed". That means that the patient is the judge of how and when to take them. If they wind up with twenty of them still not taken a year from now, they (not a cop) are still the proper judge of "as needed." Throw the leftovers away when you have recovered from the one time, and long since resolved, ailment the controlled substance was prescribed for. Vicodin is often prescribed for chronic pain -- which doesn't go away, except perhaps temporarily. I would advise them to follow the doctor's directions and take them "as needed". If that means that you don't take them all in ten days then so be it -- and a cop really isn't a good judge of what "is needed" and, as long as the original prescription is legitimate, they should leave you alone. Do not combine them with alcohol and do not drive while taking them. Make it simpler. Don't do anything to impair your driving -- keeping in mind that fatigue is a bigger cause of accidents than prescription drugs. Of course, the only reason we are even having this discussion is because the US Government made some really stupid decisions about how to handle these drugs back about 1914. Before then, these drugs were open for sale over the counter and didn't cause nearly the issues that they do today. The big problems came about when we started thinking that cops were the best people to make medical judgments on drugs. But that's probably another thread. |