How To Secure Your Medical Prescription Drugs?

Posted on

Image Source

 

Learning to handle prescription medicines carefully is very important for the overall safety of your family members, especially when you have children and teenage kids at your home. 

 

Some folks usually focus on keeping the medicine away from the reach of small children to ensure they don’t swallow any pills or medicine accidentally and don’t hesitate with teenagers handling prescription medicine. However, this should not be the case. Parents should be careful and avoid completely trusting teenagers with prescription drugs. Nowadays, prescription drug abuse is an increasing problem in youngsters. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about twenty percent of American teenagers have abused medical prescriptions. 

 

Teenagers are under the impression that medication prescribed by doctors and physicians is safe even when used illicitly. This myth and the easy availability of these medications are the two reasons for the prescription drug addiction crisis, which has affected more than 2 million American children. Hence, people should be wary and careful with prescription medicine. 

 

Here are some valuable tips to secure your medical prescription drugs.

 

  • Designated Place for Medical Prescription Drugs

Image Source

 

You can designate an individual cabinet or drawer to store all your prescription drugs, and it will also be easy for you to locate all the medications. Practice a habit of placing the medicines in the prescription cabinet instantly after use. So if you find your pills or medicines anywhere else other than the prescription cabinet, you know that someone else is interfering with your prescription. 

 

Keeping the prescription cabinet locked all the time will also help you secure your medication. You can also get a narcotics cabinet in your home for all your medical prescription drugs and narcotics- to keep them safe and away from the access of sneaky teenagers. 

They come with a locking mechanism, and having a separate cabinet is far more convenient. If you keep your prescription drugs in an almirah that remains mostly unlocked for other purposes, your kids can get access to the drugs when you are not around. Hence, it is better to have a separate medication cabinet, and you can keep it locked all the time after use. 

 

  • Keep A Tab On The Quantity Of Medicine

Image Source

 

You must be aware of the quantity of prescription medicine in your home. Will you be able to know if some of the pills were missing? If not, you need to be more attentive and careful with the medications in your home. You must keep a count on the number of pill and pill packets and keep track of refills. So you can detect if someone is misusing prescription drugs. Also, one of the most obvious ways to figure out whether someone else is using your prescription is to see if your prescription runs out before its scheduled time. 

You can also get pill containers that can hold specific amounts, so it will be easy to keep a tab on the number of medicines. 

 

  • Manage Your Family’s Prescription Drugs 

 

A responsible adult in the family must be in charge of handling all the medications. 

 

If you are the one who takes care of all the prescription medications or your family, make sure to monitor the prescription drugs and refills. Stay extra careful with commonly abused and addictive medicines like opioids (pain killers), benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety medications and sedatives), and stimulants ( prescriptions for ADHD). These medicines are highly addictive, and their misuse can be dangerous, especially for youngsters. 

 

If possible, you can keep these medicines out of sight to be on the safer side. Keep the grandparents in your home also aware of the risk of prescription medical drugs to be careful.

 

  • Dispose of Unused Medicines

Image Source

 

Some people make the mistake of keeping unused and expired medicines in the house. Disposing of unused and expired medications is very crucial for protecting your kids and family. 

 

Throwing expired medicine packets in the trash can is not the right way to dispose of them as teenagers are very sneaky and crafty nowadays, and they can retrieve medications from the trash can as well.

 

You can dispose of them in trash bags when your kids aren’t home, or you can also mix unused or expired medication with substances like kitty litter, wet waste, etc.  However, do not flush the prescription medications in the toilet or sink because it can contaminate the water supply. 

 

Another way to get rid of expired and unused medication is to give it to your local pharmacy. An ideal way to dispose of the drug is to participate in a safe drug disposal program. You can visit the DEA website to learn more about it.

 

  • Monitor Your Children’s Unusual Behavior

 

Parents need to be a little bit careful and monitor their children’s activities. If you see your kid spent considerable time over his friend’s place, you can communicate with their friend’s folks regarding the risk and safety measures of prescribed medical drugs to be safe. It is essential to know that your kid is not getting access to such medication from somewhere else. 

 

Conclusion

 

A protocol is necessary to ensure the safety of your family. You can take your teenage kids to a physician to make them aware of the consequences of using medical prescriptions illicitly. Speaking and taking your kids into confidence will prevent them from doing such things.