# Drug Shelf Life



## LargoMike (Apr 27, 2012)

As most are aware that the "Sell By Date" is not the expiration date, my thinking is that the 1 year date on all our various meds is not accurate.

Let us use Gabapentin tablets for example. How long can I actually keep them before they lose effictivness?

:-\

LargoMike
Tampa Bay, Florida
Rookie Prepper


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

For all pill form medication it basically depends on how and where they are stored. JUST my personal experiences, but I was told by several medical professionals who are preppers that if I sealed the pill form medications in a vacuum pack bag and keep in a regular freezer the medications could potentially be viable and safe to use for up to 10 years after being put in the freezer. Once taken out and thawed, so to speak, then the expiration timing begins. Liquid medications like insulin are a different story and once a bottle/package of nitroglycerine pill is open the begin to degrade really fast, so are hard to store if they have been used (pack/bottle opened). The BIGGEST hazard is knowing what disease one is trying to treat and which medication is best for that disease plus proper dosages and timing thereof.


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## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

really good question, of which I don't know there's a good answer.

I have one medication that is several years old, and is still as effective as the day I got it.


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## mpguy18 (Sep 7, 2011)

The military forced the drug companies to actually give exact expiration dates, but the Rx companies forced that they would not be made public. Somewhere on the site is a thread regarding this. Another source would be Survivaldoc. he Doc, would you please address this?


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

They're good forever... as placebos.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

Some medications gain strength as they age. don't just assume that they lose their potentce.


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

Names of such meds please, BillM.


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## pawpaw (Dec 21, 2011)

*Hey LargoMike,*

On You Tube there's a series of videos by 'Patriot Nurse', and one of her vids is on the REAL expiration dates of some drugs, namely antibiotics. In it, she posts some pretty credible sources to explain:
Which meds have incredibly short lives
Which have shockingly long storage lives
She then goes on to outline a study undertaken at the request of the Army on true storage life of antibiotics because they were spending a fortune on replenishment. The whole thing was supposed to be squelched because of the obvious impact it would have on drugs companies' bottom lines.
It'a an excellent video. And I believe her.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

*Some of them*



goatlady said:


> Names of such meds please, BillM.


My father was a medical detail man for Wyeth Labs.

I am not that knowlegable on this subject

Some of the drugs that gain strength are pain killers.

I don't know all of them but Equinel comes to mind. If you look in the literature that comes with your meds it will explain the side effects of expired drugs, ect.


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## fedorthedog (Apr 14, 2011)

Most just lose potency but some do convert to a poison you need to know which does which. But this is generally a long time after the expiration date.


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

Equanil (meprobamate) WAS an anti-anxiety drug and is no longer on the market in the U.S. as of at least 2009. I work in the medical field as a transcriptionist and must keep up to date on drugs and dosages, etc. I have not run across any pain killer drug (narcotic) that increases in effacacy as it ages. 

fedorthedog, at one time tetracycline did become toxic when outdated but only because of a buffering ingredient in the formulation which has been changed many, many years ago so toxicity with expiration is not longer a concern with that antibiotic. If you know of particular drugs of any class that become toxic with expiration, I and others would appreciate the names please so as to be able to avoid tragic happenings.


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