When you have an over-the-counter medication at your house, and a friend or roommate is sick, you probably don’t think twice about sharing the medicine with them. You’re just trying to help them out, and you know that this is going to be beneficial. You just give them your cold and flu capsules, for example, or headache medication. There is certainly nothing wrong with this type of sharing between adults who are both allowed to take that over-the-counter medication.
Just don’t make the mistake of doing the same thing with a prescription medication. Even if you have good intentions, and you are simply trying to help someone, you’re not allowed to share these medications. It is illegal and could result in serious drug charges. Why is this?
The risk of abuse
Generally speaking, prescription medications are controlled so strictly because they get abused so often. Recreational use can even start as valid medical use. For instance, say that you suffered an injury and the doctor gave you opioids. These can be addictive, but it’s also possible to use them properly so that they relieve pain until you heal.
Unfortunately, those who use these drugs for too long sometimes get addicted to them. This has created a secondary market of recreational medications, which leads to many arrests and overdose deaths each year. Therefore, sharing these pills has been made illegal as a way to cut back on this abuse. The only person who is supposed to take the pills is the person for whom the prescription has been written.
One of the most common arguments that people make when they face these types of accusations is that addiction wasn’t an issue and no one was going to abuse the pills. The other person simply needed the benefits of the medicine. And that may be true, but that doesn’t change the fact that sharing prescription medication still technically violates the law.
If you do end up facing serious drug charges, then you need to know about all of the legal defense options at your disposal.