Medication Lock Box

Proper Disposal of Your Medications

Sometimes prescription medicines are a must. But what happens when your doctor changes your medications or you no longer need that medication? Or what about expired medication? What does one do with all those leftover pills and bottles you no longer need? What do you need to do for proper disposal of your medications?

Here we are going to explain how to properly dispose of your medications in a safe manner. Depending on the medication, will define how you what methods you should use to safely dispose.

Proper Medication Disposal Tips

First, never flush your medications down the toilet. Seem like the logical solution but think about it. That drug will get into the public water system. Not good.

Method #1

If your community or pharmacy has a “take back” program, that is the best way to go. However, not all communities or pharmacies participate in such programs. Check with your local Walgreens, Rite Aid or CVS, they usually can take care of you. If you don’t have any of those than you can try your local pharmacy, the grocery store or even medical clinics and hospitals.

Method #2

According to the Food and Drug Administration, remove the prescription medication from it’s original container and add it to a resealable container or bag. Then add an undesirable substance such as kitty liter, coffee grounds, or dirt. All you do then is just toss it in the trash.

Proper Disposal of Needles or Sharps

Next, if you are diabetic or have to use injections for whatever reason, the needles or “sharps” must be disposed of in a safe way. This includes lancets used to test your blood sugar. For the safety of sanitation workers, you can’t just toss them in the trash.

Here, you have 2 options. First you could purchase one of those red sharp containers that you see at the doctor’s office. The problem with that, it’s a biohazard material if put in that container and then you must pay to dispose of biohazard materials. These can’t go into your regular trash can.

The next option you have is to get a sturdy plastic container such as an empty, clean laundry detergent container or fabric softener container. Write the words with a dark marker “do not recycle, household sharps”. Put your sharps and lancets in there and then you may just deposit it in your regular trash.

Disposing of Vitamins and Supplements

A lot of people don’t think about properly disposing of vitamins and supplements because them seem less dangerous. How ever that is not the case. It is very easy for a child to overdose even on common multi-vitamins.

If you have expired vitamins and supplements, just put them in a resealable bag and water to dissolve. Very easy way to dispose of them. Or mix them with some deterrent in the trash like coffee grinds, bacon grease etc.. That way kids or small animals will be less likely to try and swallow them.

What to Do With Empty Prescription Bottles

Before you throw your medication bottles in the trash without removing the labels. The labels have all your personal information on it. Your address, phone number, and name. Remove those labels and tear them up.

Drug addicts will often go through trash looking for medications. As said before, you want to make sure you tear off the label of your medications because the last thing you want is someone coming into your home looking for prescription medications.

Tips for Flying With Prescription Medication

When flying anywhere, it is always quite a challenge if you have to take some prescribed medication with you. But don’t woory, we have a lot of tips for flying with prescription medication for you! You will always wonder if it is right to travel with them, or not, given the various strict regulations. It is possible to travel with prescription medications when flying as long as you meet some predetermined qualifications. The Transport Safety Administration has some strict rules in place for passengers traveling with their medications. This is mainly done in order to reduce the possibility of any unfortunate event occurring during a flight. These items are often subject to more scrutiny at the security checkpoints to ensure that they are really prescription drugs. In order to have as little problems as possible when boarding your flight, you can invest in a medication lock box to put all your drugs inside.

Prescription Drugs are Allowed

All your prescription drugs are allowed on your flight. These drugs may be in the form of gels, aerosol and liquids forms of medications. There are also other specific prescription medications that you can bring on board like eye drops, petroleum jelly and saline solution. Although the TSA does not limit the number of the prescription drugs that you can carry on board, liquid medicine has to be declared. It is declared if it is in bottles of more than 3 ounces to the TSA security officers that it is in your luggage. Then it is subjected to scrutiny before it is cleared by the security.

Non-Liquid Form of Medications

While travelling by air, you may pack non-liquid medications inside your carry-on luggage and also in the checked baggage. It is recommended by the TSA that in order to expedite the screening process, travelers should label their medications clearly. They can be placed in different containers that are clearly marked about the drugs inside them instead of grouping all of them together in one container. This would take a lot of time for them to be screened thereby wasting a lot of valuable time.

X-Rays Sensitive Medication

If you will be traveling with your X-rays sensitive medications or supplies, you will be forced to have them pass through an X-ray machine. However, you can request them to visually inspect these supplies and medications instead of using the X-ray machine. The officers will request you to show, handle them, and then repack your medications. If it will be hard to clear these medications through the visual way, if not cleared, than they will have to be passed through the machine before they are cleared by the airport security.

Proper Documentation

It would be important for the patients carrying their prescription medication to ensure that they also carry the documentation that shows the necessity of them bringing their medications on board. You can even get a TSA notification card that shows what medical conditions you have. They should the show such documentation to the TSA security officials as an explanation as to why they ought to bring their medicines on their flight. It would be essential to ensure that the name appearing on your documentation is the same one that will appear on the airline ticket. Any differences should be explained satisfactorily in order to avert any danger occurring on the flight.

Other Precautions

When you travel with your medications, there are several other precautions and measures that you should adhere to in order to ensure your safety and the safety of the others. During your security check, ensure that you use the special/family security line. The security officers assigned to this line are usually well trained in order to offer you with additional assistance. You should also pack up some extra supply of your medication just in case you get delayed or stay for longer than expected. You should also ensure that you have with you a copy of the original prescription. This is to ensure that both the generic and trade names of your medication are known just in case you lose them or they get stolen. If you will be using unusual medication, ensure that it is allowed in the country you are headed to.

Using a Special Lock Box

You should try not to put all your medications in a single container so as to save your luggage space. Instead you can opt to get a special medication lock box that will allow you to carry all your medications safely. It will have various compartments that will allow you to store your medications safely and in an organized manner. You will then be able to lock this box therefore preventing anyone without authority to access the contents. This box will also help you to keep your drugs safe whenever you will be in hotel rooms or lobbies waiting for your flight. Make sure to get one with A TSA approved lock!

Keeping Delays to a Minimum

Here is a great video form the Food and Drug Administration with tips and tricks to minimize delays when traveling with medications.

Why You Need to Lock Away Your Medication

A medication lock box is an important tool to have in your home. If you have kids, grandkids, or pets; a medication lockbox is a must. Even if you don’t have prescription medications, over-the-counter medications (OTC) can be just has dangerous to children and pets.

Prescription Medication

First, let’s start with your prescription medications. If you have prescription medications, don’t tell many people about your medication types, even your children. Next, find the proper medication lock box to keep your prescriptions in. Why is this important? Of course, you don’t want your little ones ingesting your medications thinking it’s candy or more tragically older kids and teens getting into your medication to experiment.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, (after marijuana and alcohol), are the most commonly abused substances by Americans 14 and older. That’s a good reason to lock up your meds. Everyday more than 3,300 kids begin experimenting with prescription drugs.

Here are some of the most commonly abused and therefore more apt to be sought after are: Fentanyl (Duragesic), Hydrocodone (Vicodin), Oxycodone (OxyContin), Oxymorphone (Opana), Propoxyphene (Darvon), Hydromorphone (Dilaudid), Meperidine (Demerol), Diphenoxylate (Lomotil), Alprazolam (Xanax), and Diazepam (Valium). They could be stolen to abuse or to sell. The street value of some of these medications can be quite significant. The street value could be $.50 to $1 per milligram. So a 10 milligram Oxycontin could get $10 per pill. If your doctor has prescribed you 60 pills per month, that’s a $600 street value.

Therefore, if you have guest, children, grandchildren, or workers coming into your home, a medication lockbox is a must. Moreover, if your medications were to get stolen, you would be in pain  or sick without them. The physician is not likely to re-prescribe you more medication because of state laws prevent them from doing so until a certain amount of time has passed.

Here is a great video from Partnership for Drug-Free Kids that also has a powerful message about why you need to lock up all your medication.

Over the Counter and Vitamins

Next, let’s talk about OTC vitamins and supplements. This one can be especially dangerous for children. Children’s vitamins contain iron, which is a good thing. However, children’s vitamins by design taste like candy. If a child were to take more than the recommended dose in a day, it could be detrimental to the child’s health. Iron overdose is leading cause of poison-related injury or deaths in children.

Don’t Forget About Your Pets

Oh, and did I mention pets. Dogs and cats be mischievous and get into things that are not good for them. Did you know that Tylenol is deadly for cats? In fact, there are not any OTC medicines that are totally safe for dogs or cats. Another reason to put your medication in a medication lock box or locking bag.

Don’t Despair

I know all of this seems scary, but don’t despair. There are some some great, easy solutions to help you keep your medication safe on the market today. Many of these medication lock boxes and bags are very cost efficient too. However if you have some of the more dangerous medications in your house you may want to consider a more durable lock box. You can find a lot of suggestions on our site with reviews and information so you can make an informed decision on the best lock box for your needs.