Giving away Ritalin

[Didrik]

[edited out]

[Andromeda1528]

This is very nice of you to offer this, and you're welcome to do whatever you wish (I'm not the police! lol)... however, I thought I should at least point out to you that I don't think this is exactly legal. I'm about 99.9% sure that this is illegal, and if I was you, for your own protection I wouldn't do this if I were you. In the US there is only one legal way to get ritalin, which is a highly controlled substance (think of it like crack, but it's a medicine and it's legal), and that is to get a prescription from your doctor and fill it at a pharmacy. ANYTHING else would be illegal... and you would be risking getting in trouble for drug dealing or black market dealings...
I would caution you against giving out ritalin to strangers (or anyone but who it's prescribed for! but that's just me, I always follow the rules/laws) because you could get yourself in all sorts of serious legal trouble. What if you gave the medicine to someone and they got sick or caught without a prescription or what have you? This is the US we're talking about, after all? Unfortunately, here in europe, the US is considered to be the land of the lawsuit crazy... if something were to happen, you could be held responsible, so while I know you mean well, I would caution you against this - and also caution others not to do this.
I might also point out, in case anyone doesn't know, that there is actually a black market for ritalin (I was shocked at this when I found out!), so it's not craziness to worry about giving out meds to others... apparently (this is just what I once heard) some people with ADD or other issues get the medicine legally but then sell it to other people on the black market, who crush it and use it like cocaine... terrible! but I think that's why it's so highly controlled.
sorry to be the voice of caution, but I thought it needed to be said...
I also might point out: I'm not sure that it's even legal to send a filled ritalin prescription in the mail... I think I remember something about this, but it's been so long I can't remember specifically.

Andromeda
nisfornarcolepsy.com

[Didrik]

I know it's a little bit tricky,
and that's why I posted it here, cuz I thought at least over here there might be people who actually need it, having read all the stories of people who need to count their pills each month and make life-choises on which days they'll do something useful, and which other 4 days a week will be wasted doing nothing, cuz their doc doesnt want to prescribe them more than is enough for them to function 50% of the days in a week or so.
I didnt think of legal issues, not sure about those. It is a prescription drug, so it's probably not legal, but I dont see how it would be punishable as Im not making any profit with it whatsoever - but of course I dont want any of you to get into trouble either, and I simply have no idea if actually customs would check letters coming into the US or not

but at least it seemed more useful than throwing them away in the bin, or selling them to people who use it for 'fun'.

[kiragrace]

Yes, its very thoughtful of you to offer the Ritalin.

I, too, had thought about offering up some extra meds because it really does seem like such a waste to throw them out, destroy them, etc. ESPECIALLY since there are many people out there who NEED medication and cannot afford it.

But it IS illegal............ESPECIALLY for medications like Ritalin, other narcolepsy meds, pain meds, etc...........they are in a different class of drugs where penalties for misuse and selling is worse than if you gave away, say, antibiotics. lol.

It really is too bad there wasn't some kind of exchange thing through, I don't know, a doctor's office or something for things like this.

Anyway, be careful!

[sleepymoon]

Yeah, it's totally illegal to share or give away ANY prescriptions, especially controlled substances. Don't do it!

[Didrik]

Allright, then next time I see my doctor in a few months I'll give her the boxes and I'm sure she's allowed to give them to people as "samples" or so.


I guess this thread can then be closed/locked or removed or so.

[still_ill?]

[Didrik]

No antidepressant... I just woke up one morning feeling fine, and the excessive daytime sleepiness was gone so we figured somehow the depression had largely disappeared by itself all of a sudden.

Funnily this happened after a night of little sleep and much restless thinking... guess something must have clicked in my head. Otherwise it must have been all the sunbathing those weeks cuz it was vacation and supergreat weather (had been vit D deficient for extended periods of time)(altho the vit D supplements at first didn't seem to have any effect even if my vit D levels got restored).

[Willow2007]

I am more than 99.9% sure it is illegal to send it through the mail, send it to someone that is not listed on the RX, and then the Post office gets into it and gets into controlled substances through the mail.

also, if you take it to your Dr. she cannot give it to anyone else, because she can not prove that she knows exactly what is in the bottle. If you put a bad pill in there, and it looked exactly like the ritalin (not saying you would, but there are bad people out there) you could get in a whole lot of trouble for it. It is better for you to crush it all up, put it in a bag with something nasty like dirty cat litter, etc. and a little water, so no one will be able to use it. They used to say "flush them" but the medicines are showing up in groundwater. *I'm hoping my town gets a lot of lithium that'll make everybody in a better mood, lol*) As a nurse, we either put them in a sharps container (those are burned up) or crush them and put in bags with dirty diapers that will go to the landfill. When I get my dexedrine (which I use once or twice a week) I get a bottle of 150 of them. I use perhaps 2/3 of a bottle before they expire. So I usually take them to work and crush them up.

[Willow2007]

You can also take them to your pharmacy and they can get rid of them safely for you.

[hoodjm]

When I need to dispose of Meds, I put it in the trash bag with the used cat litter.

[Didrik]

Thx for the advice.



@ still_ill?: could you please edit out my email address from your post? it has the Quote tag in it from my original post, and I figure it's best not to have any more people write me about this :p
Thanks!