Mr. Rawles:
As my family ages we seem to be getting more dependent on prescription medications
which I'm sure will limit our chances of survival in many SHTF scenarios.
When family members are on long term prescriptions, it seems possible to
set some aside for when the normal medical infrastructure may no longer be
available. (Assuming the person they were prescribed for, maintains custody
of the stashed meds, there doesn't seem to be an obvious violation of the
law. When the SHTF scenario occurs, the worry about law violations would
probably take a much lower priority than physical survival.)
It would be helpful if someone knowledgeable could give some guidance appropriate
to long term storage. Some principles would be intuitive such as, if possible,
rotate your stock so that the freshest gets stored. Avoid high temperature/high
humidity, bright light storage. Information sheets that come from the pharmaceutical
company or the pharmacy have suggested storage conditions but I'm pretty sure
these instructions assume stable social conditions in which the meds would
be used by their normal expiration dates and replacements would be available
from the traditional sources.
For instance, would removing moisture with silica gel and then freezing the
sealed container of pain killer or antibiotic be better in general than just
storing the meds in the original container at room temperature? How reliable
are expiration dates on prescriptions? (Does the pharmacist just generally
put an expiration date on the bottle that is some approximation of when the
potency will go down significantly or does he/she actually use the pharmaceutical
company's date from the original bulk package?) I used to go to a doctor who
was famous for giving out expired drug samples. He said the date were very
approximate and potency almost never increased with age. He also said the decrease
in potency was very gradual and a drug that was six months past the expiration
date might still be 90% of full potency.
Some of these practices I'm suggesting might be considered risky under normal
conditions, but under long term SHTF conditions these meds would be priceless
and well worth the risk of using them.
Are there any books or Internet sources available already for this type on
information? - A.W. in Pennsylvania
JWR Replies: Regardless of how extensively you stock up, remember to store your meds in the classic "cool, dry place", away from sunlight.
The expiry dates on both prescription nd non-prescription medicines are very conservative, for two reasons: 1.) Legal Liability, and 2.) Profit. By having early expiries, the pharmaceutical companies sell more drugs (replacing "expired" stocks), which means more profit. Perhaps some of the doctors of pharmacists that read SurvivalBlog will chime in with some realistic figures on actual shelf life. (This goes beyond my expertise. Please help me out here, ladies and gents.)
OBTW, I describe a WHO-approved titers test for antibiotics in my novel "Patriots".
