If you get pills from someone’s medicine cabinet and not from a street dealer, then you are not breaking the law. Wrong. A lot of people, including teens believe that sharing prescription medicines is legal, but this is not always the case.
Federal and state laws state that using and sharing prescription drugs is illegal. It is not only against the law to pass a pill prescribed for someone else, but it can also be dangerous.
Why Teens May Try Prescription Drugs
Teens abuse prescription drugs because of the notion that it is legal because they didn’t purchase it on the street. Also, it will be much easier for them to acquire these drugs in their medicine cabinet at home. There also think that because a doctor prescribes it, it is safer than those being sold on the streets.
In this time where there is a growing opioid epidemic, parents should do their best to stop their children from abusing prescription drugs. It should be treated with the same gravity as catching their children with marijuana or other illegal drugs.
Federal and State Prescription Drug Laws
Let’s be clear with this fact: prescription drugs are controlled substances. According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the only legitimate way to get prescription drugs is by getting a prescription from a doctor. Other than that, it shouldn’t be given or taken by anybody. According to the law, “no controlled substance may be distributed without a prescription from a doctor.”
It could still be considered a criminal act if the doctor prescribed too many pills or the amount is too much for one patient. Even without the knowledge if it is going to be resold or abused, it can still violate the law.
Possession with Intent to Distribute
There are states that make it illegal for anyone to carry around their prescription drugs under certain situations. For some states, bringing around pills that are not in prescription bottles is illegal.
The presumption is that is you are carrying your prescribed pill in your pocket or purse, and you will distribute them that is why it is illegal to bring them around that way, even if they are prescribed to you by your doctor. So if you don’t want to get in trouble, always put them in their prescription bottle.
When Prescription Drugs are Illegal
Whatever information other people try to feed you regarding using, sharing prescription drugs, always remember that having it without a proper prescription is just as bad as possessing marijuana. Both scenarios can get you in trouble. It is also dangerous to take drugs not prescribed to you. It could lead to numbers of detrimental effects on your body, and you have no idea what it can do to you.
The danger of taking prescription medications is not limited to making you sick, but can also put you in prison. Again, just because you got them somewhere legal, like your family’s medicine cabinet doesn’t mean they are legal.