Too bad prescriptions can’t be stockpiled.
Why can’t prescriptions be stockpiled? You don’t believe those USE BY dates do you?
Keep them refrigerated and they will last years past the expiration date.
Don't be fooled by the "expiration date" printed on the label. Most times it is exactly one year from the date the script was filled, what an extraordinary coincidence! Effective life of a drug is dependent on how it is stored. Cool temperatures and darkness will insure a longer life. Avoid freezing liquids.
The country's largest consumer of prescription drugs is the Department of Defense. Can you imagine the impact on suppliers and the costs if the DoD had to roll over their entire supply of drugs every year? It doesn't happen because the DoD did studies on the actual longevity of prescription drugs and found that their useful life was much longer then one year. They also found that drugs slowly declined in efficacy rather then having a fixed life after which they just stopped working.
I read about this in a back issue of "Backwoods Home" and unfortunately the article did not include any hard data on actual life. Perhaps the Government Printing office might have copies of the studies available.
As to how to acquire "extra" medication for storage I would ask my doctor to provide 90 day scripts w/ 3 refills for all maintenance drugs (lipids, blood pressure, &c.) through a mail-order pharmacy (MEDCO, CVS, &c.). These pharmacies generally let you refill at about 65 days thus you get another 90 pills leaving 25 for your "stash". You renew your "yearly" script at 260 days, you have 100 pills in storage, you keep on rolling. After a year or two you start rotating your pill stash, using up the oldest and replacing them with fresh.
Regards,
GtG
A Doctor's Thoughts on Antibiotics, Expiration Dates, and TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Bones
" Studies performed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that 90% of medications tested were perfectly fine to use 8-to-15 years after the expiration date."
I've bought my antibiotics from here for years and have many stock-piled.
“Too bad prescriptions can’t be stockpiled”
alldaychemist.com