Ahhh, autumn! Cooler weather. Cheap chocolate. Fall foliage. The sniffles.

Uh, yep, it’s almost cold and flu season. Everyone’s favorite time of the year, I’m sure. Which means it is time to face the medicine cabinet (insert shrieks of horror here).

My medicine cabinet is not in the bathroom as so many people seem to think it belongs (that’s a story for another post). I keep all my medicines in the kitchen, in a cabinet that holds the odd ball glassware. You know the fancy dessert dishes, wine glasses, cheese plates, etc.

Why?

Because most medications are taken with food and downed with water (except for all you snake people who down the pills dry–ick!). Seriously, water or other fluids, excluding alcohol, held dissolve those pills and absorb the medicine into the body faster.

Okay, I’m a little off topic.

Since the season of coughing, sneezing, icky feeling is almost upon us, it is a good idea to go through the medicine cabinet and make sure I’m well supplied. Cough drops, aspirin, Tylenol, Dayquil, Nyquil, Chloroseptic (really desperate to use that), and Vicks Vaporub are essential. This is also the time that I stock up on bandaids and antibiotic cream and check my supply of Betadine, iodine,  rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide plus that supply of salt.

It is also the time to dispose of all those prescriptions you didn’t quite use up. You know the ones I mean. My children never take all their antibiotics and then there’s the pain meds prescribed when teeth were removed. Despite being an avid recycler, I refuse to increase the profits of the local drug dealer by turning them over to him for resale.

So what can you do with those meds.

Flushing them down the toilet is actively discouraged as the waste water treatment doesn’t completely get rid of the  pharmaceuticals. Now cities are advocating that you check with your local pharmacy to see if they’ll take them back for proper disposal. Or take them out of their packages and mix them with coffee grounds, kitty litter and put them in an empty coffee can or sealed plastic bag and throw them in the trash. For more information on how to dispose of unused medicines in your community check with your local utility or check out this one, complete with federal links for more information, at  http://www.glendaleaz.com/utilities/documents/drugdispos_brochure.pdf