What to do with prescription or over-the-counter drugs that you cannot take

I am having MAJOR adverse reactions to a new drug that I am taking. I started out with 2 days worth of extreme drowsiness and horrible dizziness. The drowsiness is better but the dizziness is getting worse. So, today, I called my pharmacist. He checked into it and advised me to contact my doctor right away which I did immediately after hanging up from him.

Once I got a hold of her, she told me that the increasing dizziness was just not acceptable so she told me to quit taking the drug. Once the medicine is out of my system, we can start a new drug.

Before we hung up, I asked her if it was okay for me to just flush the extra pills down the drain. She recommended to me that anytime that anyone has any problems with their meds, prescription or over-the-counter, and have cleared it with their doctor to discontinue them, that we should NEVER throw them into the trash or flush them down the sinks or stools/toilets. By doing this, we stand to have just that much more contamination in our drinking water somewhere along the line.

Instead of doing this, either take these out-dated or whatever drugs to your personal pharmacist or Wal-Mart or Walgreen Pharmacies. Then those pharmacies will throw these drugs into their drug incinerator for proper disposal. In our area, Garden Pharmacy at Third and Kansas in Garden City has an incinerator that is used for any and all drugs even if you do not purchase drugs from them. But, if you do take them to other pharmacies, they will more-than-likely take them to Garden Pharmacy, take them to another pharmacy with an incinerator or will dispose them in their own incinerator if they have one.

Just thought that you might want to know this so that we can do even more to protect and clean our environment.

VLE-B