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”.