When you are in pain and cannot get in to get the doctor for one reason or another, borrowing prescription medications from someone else may be tempting. It’s easy to simply ask someone for medication that would treat the symptoms that you have. It’s important to know that this isn’t a great option for many reasons. The following guide provides you with a few reasons why borrowing drugs from someone else may be so dangerous.
You Could be Allergic to the Ingredients in the Medication
When a doctor prescribes someone medications, they take the time to make sure that the person isn’t allergic to the ingredients that are in it. Pharmacies also take the time to make sure that the prescription medications do not contain any allergens ensuring that there are two forms of checks and balances before someone takes any medications. If you have allergic to anything, it can be dangerous to take medications that are not prescribed to you. You won’t know what ingredients are in the drugs and it could cause you to have an allergic reaction. If you do have a reaction, you’ll have to be able to tell medical professionals what you took, when you took it and how much you took. This will be difficult to do if you take something that wasn’t prescribed to you.
You Don’t Know How Much of the Medication You Need
The dosage of each medication that someone is supposed to take is specific to them. Certain key aspects that are unique to each person are taken into consideration. This includes their age, weight, sex and health. If you take prescription medications that a doctor didn’t prescribe to you, there is a chance that you could take more or less than you need. This could be risky because you could accidentally overdose from the medications that you take. Just because someone is of similar stature to you doesn’t mean that it’s safe for you to take the same dose that they are prescribed to take.
You Could Face Criminal Charges for Having Someone Else’s Prescription Medications
Most people do not realize that it is illegal to take drugs that are prescribed to someone else. If the police search your belongings and find medications that are prescribed to someone else, you could get into trouble. You also cannot have medications stored out of a properly labeled container. Getting medications from someone and putting them into a pill case or small baggie is risky to do legally.
It’s important to know that you may not know the side effects of the drugs. If you drive while you are on the medication and end up getting into an accident or pulled over because you aren’t able to operate the vehicle safely, you could get a DWI. The legal system doesn’t allow you to use the excuse that you didn’t know how the medications would affect you when it comes to putting other people on the road at risk. Finding out that you were taking drugs that were not prescribed to you could make it more difficult to get a lenient sentence when you go to trial for your infraction.
You Could Lose Your Job if You Take the Medication
Believe it or not, taking drugs that aren’t prescribed to you could cost you your job. If your job does regular drug testing and the test shows that you have medications in your system you could end up being fired. Even if you don’t get drug tested regularly, taking the medication could be risky when it comes to your employment. If you are involved in an accident or are injured at work, the insurance company will more than likely require you to take a drug test right away. They need to prove that you weren’t intoxicated when the incident occurred. If you fail, it can serve as grounds for termination of your job.
The Medication Could React Negatively with Other Medications You Take
Believe it or not, there are certain medications that should not be taken together. Some drugs can impair the effectiveness of other prescription medications when they are taken together. If you take drugs that aren’t prescribed to you, there is a chance that they could counteract the medications that you currently take. For example, some medications cannot be taken with birth control because they make the birth control ineffective. Getting medications from a doctor ensures that you never take drugs that interact negatively together.
You Could Take the Medication Improperly
When you borrow medications from people, there is a good chance that you don’t know how to take them properly. Prescription medications come with directions that let you know when you need to take them and how to take them. Taking drugs that need to be taken with food on an empty stomach can lead to nausea, dizziness and headaches. It can also cause an overdose, if you are taking the improper dosage in an improper way.
You Could Become Addicted to the Medications
Some prescription medications can be very addictive. Taking medications prescribed to someone else, could lead to an addiction because you could take the drugs improperly. This is common with pain pills. Many people don’t know how often to take the pills and end up taking them more often than they are designed to be taken. Eventually, their body craves the drugs and it can be very difficult to stop taking them cold turkey. This can lead to an addiction that requires you to get professional help from a treatment program in order to overcome the addiction.
If you are in pain and feel like you need to take prescription medication in order to treat your condition, go to a doctor to get the treatment you need. If you don’t have insurance, there are clinics everywhere in the country that offer medical care to those without insurance. Many of the clinics have a sliding scale payment system. This means that they take how much money you make per year into consideration to determine how much of the bill you have to pay. The less you make, the less you have to pay in the end.
