Approximately 40% percent of adults say they borrow or lend prescription drugs which can be very dangerous to do from a health standpoint and it could jeopardize your employment. It is important to understand the risk of sharing prescription drugs for personal health and for employment.
- Federal law prohibits the possession or use of someone else’s prescription drugs. Even if you have a written prescription for the same drug you are taking, you could still be in violation of the law and company policy if that prescription was not filled and you took someone else’s instead. Remember for employment testing, if prescription drug shows up on a drug test, you must provide that prescription to the Medical Review Officer to verify.
- You could get fired from your job for distributing prescription drugs without a medical license and in some instances this could lead to a criminal investigation.
- Someone else’s prescription drugs may cause problems or have negative interactions with your current medicines or medical conditions. They also may cause you to have a serious side effect or allergic reaction. This is a common occurrence even with taking prescribed medications. You may not know what drug interactions could occur.
- Using leftover prescription drugs—yours or someone else’s—to treat a medical issue or condition may mean you do not get the correct dosage, and your infection or illness may become harder to treat or cause other complications.
- You could be responsible for coworkers’ injuries if they take your prescription drugs. And, depending on where you live, if the person you gave the drugs to gives them to someone else, you also may be legally responsible for the other person’s injuries.
Help protect yourself, co-workers, and fiends while helping to stop drug abuse. Don’t share your prescriptions with others or accept prescription medications offered by others.
DISCLAIMER: This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
