Ye Olde Drugs

Okay kids, let’s talk about the drugs.

We know America has a drug problem – you find it everywhere – in homes, in schools… in your pocket.

And I always wonder before taking them – is this legal or am I crossing the line… again?

I mean, this Tylenol is a year past its expiration date and I’m not sure what it’s going to do to me. It could still work, it could be lethally toxic, it could give me super powers. You may look into your medicine cabinet and have the same hesitation – you may even be thinking about clearing the whole thing out and getting all new drugs.

But before you do, consider this: the use-by stamp on your drugs isn’t supposed to tell you when they become harmful, it’s a guarantee of 100% potency. Oh! I mean, medication… cause these are legal.

That means the drug is certified by the manufacturer to do its job at LEAST up until that date (and it’ll probably last a whole lot longer than that too!) One study found 90% of the drugs tested were still effective 15 years after their expiration date. Some aspirin with a 2-year shelf life was tested 100% effective 4 years later. Still 100%… that’s some good stuff.

Make sure to store your drugs in a cool, dry place, where people can’t get at them… I mean, kids, where kids can’t get at them… easily.

Storing your drugs in a cool, dry place can help them last longer – an air-tight container in the fridge may be the best way to keep your drugs effective for as long as possible.

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Not only are many of your out-of-date drugs still effective, but virtually all of them are still safe to take. The only reported injury caused by taking out-of-date drugs is an alleged renal damage case from taking tetracycline, and since then, manufacturers have even taken steps which supposedly counteract its potentially toxic effects – even though it was never proven that the age of the tetracycline was even the real problem.

So if it’s important that the drug be 100% effective, like insulin or antibiotics, it’s probably better to get something new and not gamble with the 4-year old 90% effective medication you have lying around in the cabinet. Also, if the medication in question is liquid or life-saving, you might want to watch it closely.

For example, epenep… epenepepafren… the ingredient in… I said that wrong, didn’t I?

Epinephrin, the ingredient found in Epipens, degrades faster than most other drugs, losing a little over 10% of its potency in just 10 months after the expiration date. If you have a liquid medication that becomes cloudy or separated or discolored, it may not be good anymore either. Really, any alteration in a medication’s form or color means some kind of chemical reaction’s taken place, and you should probably replace it.

This looks like a little forest growing down in here… cough cough.

But for all your other pills and tablets and gel-caps and nicknacks and stuff – if it still looks good, odds are it still is good. So don’t dump the stash, just cause it’s old. Hey, some of that Alka-Seltzer from the 1970s may be just as good now as it was then… maybe even better!

The use-by stamp on your prescription drugs… but this isn’t prescription… whoo!

Transcribed by: Ian

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