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Is there a way to donate or give unused ADHD medication to people in need?
I have been going through trials to see what ADHD medication might be a good fit for me, and as a side effect have amassed a good deal of unused pills. I have like 60 Vyvanse, a whole bunch of Strattera, and with how expensive they are I'd love to pass them off to someone who might be able to use them. Is this a possibility?
Cheers!
Even if someone has a prescription, it’s illegal to pass the meds on to them. If you don’t need them, you can turn them into the pharmacy and they’ll handle it.
I would recommend holding onto them even if they aren’t your preferred medication. You never know when there’ll be a shortage of your prescription and having a supply of backup meds will come in handy someday.
Frankly as an anarchist and knowing how difficult it is for many people, especially in the US, to get diagnosed and medicated with the medical industry the way it is, legality would be the least of my worries if I was in OP's shoes.
Plus, there's some people who get so stuck that they can't keep a job without meds, but can't afford meds without a job.
I'd be more worried about giving stimulants to someone with a heart condition.
The heart condition thing is a real concern -- they made me take an EKG once I was diagnosed before they started prescribing me medication, and they had me monitor my heart rate and blood pressure during the initial process of starting the medication to ensure nothing went wrong.
Same here. BP is still monitored for multiple days in a row every year before the prescription is renewed. This in a country with a publicly funded healthcare system that absolutely won't do unnecessary tests (because they don't gain anything from it).
Mine hasn't needed to be re-checked since I first got diagnosed luckily.
Taking this advice, thanks to everyone who weighed in and gave their insights!
Legally? No. The specifics of how severe the crime would be if you got caught vary depending on your jurisdiction, the specific med in question, and the quantity. But even with a non-controlled substance like Strattera, it's still not legal to share your prescription medication.
I understand the impulse, though. I too have a little stash of older stimulant meds from when I was trying different medications and sorting my dose out. I save them mostly as a last resort if I really need meds but have forgotten to refill my normal ones (which, given that they're for ADHD, is hardly unheard of).
Sharing scheduled meds that way outside the law isn't unheard of, but presumably generally happens through word-of-mouth or encrypted messenger group chats among friends-of-friends or groups of acquaintances with something else in common. I haven't ever 'donated' meds to anyone myself in this way, but I'm sure it happens. Since stopping your ADHD stimulant meds suddenly isn't dangerous the way doing that is for many other medications, it tends to be less of an emergency to not have access for a short period than it would be for other medications, so that presumably affects how likely someone is to reach out looking for said meds in a venue like that. Strattera is a med that shouldn't be stopped cold turkey, but I haven't personally encountered anyone asking for it in this type of situation.
The principle of not posting about how you're gonna do something illegal online ofc applies here. Legally, your options are to dispose of them properly or to save them for your personal use. I'd recommend deleting this topic if you have any other plans.
Problem is, giving it online like that, you're more likely than not to end up gifting it to a student looking for an edge, rather than someone who actually needs it.
I truly wish to live in a more high trust society, but the way we do that is gradually build that trust, not start pretending the trust is already there.
Others have covered the legal disclaimer, but I'd caution that you should be very careful who you choose to donate to. Though rare, if someone has a severe adverse reaction, it might come back to bite you. You could inadvertently be putting someone's life in danger.
Having said that, I'm part of an ADHD support group that meets up in person and some people in the group exchange or donate meds to each other. Could there perhaps be groups in your area that do the same?
Otherwise have you spoken to your doctor/psychiatrist about what to do with surplus? You never know, they may know of ways to get the meds donated to those in need.
Yes, stimulants can really mess you up if you have a heart condition (which anyone can have undiagnosed), I had to go through a cardiac screening because my EKG was slightly irregular.
Mine have sudden death listed as a side effect. For that reason alone I'm not going to hand them out to anyone who doesn't have the same exact prescription. Even then it would have to be someone I know very well and trust very much.
I'm in the EU though, where the healthcare system works pretty well and it isn't common to be left without a prescription if you really need one.
I have given singular pills or occasionally strips to friends when they forgot theirs, but I know they have the same prescription. Otherwise it's legal hot water. Not that I care too much about the legality other than it's something to make sure doesn't bite you.
You'd be better served to stash it for a later date and/or give it to a friend in need and/or return it to the pharmacy. What I wouldn't do is sell it, under any circumstance.
Edit: Clarification.
Vyvanse is a Schedule II medication. You would get into far more trouble than if you were offering someone else your Strattera (which is also illegal to do).
Semi-related note: has anyone here found Vyvanse to ineffective? I'm fairly recently diagnosed (<1 year) and have only tried the generic lisdexamfetamine in a couple different dosages, but haven't gotten much from it.
After my reading that it's pretty much the Holy Grail of ADHD meds, I've been feeling pretty down that it hasn't been effective on me. It's been fairly invalidating, honestly, even with an official diagnosis. Especially because the new GP I went to implied that I was just trying to get amphetamines and said that if Vyvanse wasn't effective, I'm basically SOL :/
Interested to hear other perspectives on this.
Vyvanse for me is a more "longer acting, less effective" medication. It doesn't feel as effective as adderall or other stimulants, but I also don't crash as hard after a few hours as I did with those. You may need to up your dosage a few times if you aren't finding it effective, but it could also just not work for you.
I hated the Vyvanse, my partner described it as literally removing the twinkle from my eye. I had absolutely flat emotions and got none of the normal endorphins from my activities. It made me no more productive or able to focus, just sucked out the joy from life. I gave it 2 weeks and dropped it.
There are so many options that aren't stimulants. Can you get a referral to a specialist? I've been through 3 different meds so far and nothing has stuck.
I haven't taken it because Adderall works for me, but not everyone responds to stimulants or specific stimulants in the same way! So if it isn't helping talk to a different doc about all the other options out there. Ask about Strattera or other non-stimulant versions. Or seek a psychiatrist for your ADHD meds
It might be premium but some of us run fine on regular unleaded.
(Also Adderall doesn't get me high or do anything but let me focus (and fuck up my appetite.) what exactly would "getting amphetamines" do for you. All of this is to say that you're valid and that doc is full of it )
I like Vyvanse because it has a lot more of a steady effect than other medications do. You definitely have to go to a higher dose to get the same strength as Adderall.
I can see differences in how strong a medication feels and how long it lasts depending on when and what I ate for breakfast. If you have been eating before taking your meds, try eating after you take it. If you already take your meds before eating, try waiting longer to eat.
If none of those strategies work, you may just need a higher dose. Vyvanse is just a compound that turns into a similar compound to Adderall during digestion, so the “feel” of both are very similar besides the clear difference in the strength and duration.
Edit: For example, I was on 10mg of Adderall in the morning with a 5mg booster in the afternoon, but was at 30mg of Vyvanse when I switched. The Adderall felt stronger, but only felt really effective for about 2-3 hours for me.
Pills don't lose efficacy that quickly, just go ahead and hold on to the extras for a while.
If it makes you feel any better, they're like, $10/month for us up here so you're not really actually losing full "retail" value by surrendering them to the pharmacy, the profit's been made.
Unrelated, back when I was involved in IVF circles, people most definitely traded and gifted super expensive hormone injection medication. They met through forums and it's based on just trust and wishing the other people well. I'm sure theres no way to fully protect ourselves legally, but probably like how I gave away unpasteurized human milk: never mail it, gift in person, have them come pick up, sometimes they bring a small gift but nothing expensive, never exchange money, gift in very small quantities if I don't know them, and it's up to them to show me anything they want to show me like photos of them with their newborns or even prescription to the NICU milk bank.
tangent on NICU milk bank
Additional note: the local children hospital's NICU has an milk donation program too that does all he safety quality checks etc, but it was too expensive (time-wise) for me to participate, and likewise the checked/pasteurized milk is crazy expensive like $25 a meal or something like that, because of all the safety checks involved.But I understand how hard it is to finally get that prescription, and how expensive it will for someone else to try. Another ADHD thing to keep in mind is that it often runs in the family: how did your family take the news of your diagnosis and are any of them curious at all?
Yeah, it's not a worry of losing the value, it's more that they cost me like $200+ each and if I can pass that on to someone else who is already diagnosed and proscribed that actual medication it would be great. A la the other advice on the thread, I will likely just sit on them.
My partner froze her eggs a few years ago and we benefitted from one of the exchange programs and the extra went to my sister, who did the same.
My family was unfazed. My parents had been getting told by teachers et al. that I likely had it since I was like 7. My mom was an OT and saw a lot of bad outcomes for medicated kids at the time and didn't want to send me down that path. Having trialed a bunch of meds now I kind of understand her reasoning as I function decently well and everything I have tried thus far has just sucked the joy from life without any added benefits - and in some cases worse attention spans. So I press on trying things out.
Nothing much to add, but a cautionary that a friend of mine once got their hands on my ritalin. This resulted in them overconsuming them, and being wired for days.