Why You Shouldn't Carry Prescription Pills in Unmarked Containers

Everybody who takes prescription medication does this, right? After being on something for while, you start to accumulate empty vials. And if you're like many people who need to take prescription medication, you don't stay home all day. Perhaps there's a pill you take at lunch, and another at three, and you don't want to drag around the gigantic bottle containing your entire month's supply of whatever, subjecting it to temperature extremes, theft or accidental loss. So you strip off the sticky labels from your empties and use them to transport only what you'll need to take during your outing.

But if you ever get pulled over by the police, a routine traffic stop could turn into a very sticky situation. Including a hefty fine or more, depending on the state in which you reside (or are stopped).

Because transferring your meds out of their original containers is not just one of those "common sense safety" recommendations you see posted in the drug store or listed in articles in magazines about keeping kids out of your medications.

In many states, it's the law.

I found this out because late one Saturday night a State Trooper told me so. My husband and I were traveling home from a night out with another couple. We'd gone back to their house for dessert, a potent rum cake, and we joked as we parted that if we were pulled over, we'd never pass the Breathalyzer.

Ironically, we were pulled over for something else. It was some minor violation on the body of my car, but enough for the Trooper to wave us to the side of the road. He asked for my husband's license and registration (since he was driving) and peppered him with the usual battery of questions designed to determine if he'd been drinking. Nothing there. My spouse was as sober as a judge (well, not including the judge from the Anna Nicole Smith trial).

Then the Trooper waved his flashlight toward the back seat of my car.

"What's in that drug vial?" he asked.

I was perplexed. Although I shouldn't have been. I'm not exactly the most vigilant person when it comes to the neatness of my car. There were also empty water bottles and Starbucks cups and granola bar wrappers rattling around back there as well. In retrospect, I admire the Trooper's attention to detail. "What drug vial?"

My husband followed the beam to an unlabeled drug vial on the floor. He reached for it, and handed it to the Trooper.

"What's this?" he asked, a tone in his voice that implied that his next statement would be "get out of the vehicle and keep your hands where I can see them."

I squinted at the bottle. I should have been more nervous, but at the time I was exhausted and just wanted to go home. I am not the night owl my husband is, and I'd passed my expiration date about three hours ago. "I think it's a Skelaxin."

"And what's that?" he said.

"It's a muscle relaxant," I said. I have fibromyalgia, and take a number of prescription medications to help control the muscle pain and insomnia. Sometimes I take a medication for a while, it stops working or I have a reaction, then my doctor switches me to something else. That's the nature of the disease. I hadn't taken Skelaxin in several weeks. Perhaps an old vial fell out of a coat pocket and I didn't realize it went missing because I didn't need it.

"Is that a controlled substance?"

"I don't think so."

Even though later I found out that it wasn't, I'd given the wrong answer at the time. The trooper disappeared into his car with the vial and my husband's license and registration, leaving us parked at the side of the road for what felt like forever with the window down and the night's bitter cold not the only thing giving us chills. At this point, I was awake enough to realize that something bad was going on.

Finally he returned and held up the vial. "I could take you in on this," he said. "It's against Public Health Law to carry prescription medications outside of their original containers." I told him I wasn't aware of that. He continued to grill me on why it was out of the container (see explanation above), why I didn't carry the whole bottle (because Skelaxin comes in a ginormous vial almost as big as a drinking glass), and did I indeed have a doctor's prescription for this?

Apparently I gave satisfactory answers - and the officer was not of the mind to strip search us - so he let us go with a warning.

But my husband warned me three times before we got home not to take my medications out of their containers.

I got the message. And the next day I looked up the actual law. (Although if I'd known it at the time, I doubt that the Trooper would have appreciated me quoting the law at him) According to New York State Public Health Law Article 33, Title 4, Subsection 3345 (Possession of controlled substances by ultimate users original container): Except for the purpose of current use by the person or animal for whom such substance was prescribed or dispensed, it shall be unlawful for an ultimate user of controlled substances to possess such substance outside of the original container in which it was dispensed. Violation of this provision shall be an offense punishable by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.

So even though there's some wiggle room in this law (what exactly is "The purpose of current use?" The time that elapses between me taking the pill out of the original, labeled bottle and putting it in my mouth?), a police officer is within his purview to make your life uncomfortable if he or she catches you with a controlled substance (and possibly other medications, until it can be discerned what those medications are) in an unmarked vial.

A controlled substance is any drug (as defined by United States law) that either depresses or stimulates the central nervous system, and therefore has the potential to be abused. These drugs are divided into five classes called Schedule I through V.

Schedule I drugs are usually illegal, such as heroin, LSD and marijuana.

Schedule II drugs include amphetamines, short-acting barbiturates and most narcotic painkillers. Ritalin is also on this list.

Schedule III drugs include, for example, hydrocodone, codeine and anabolic steroids.

Schedule IV drugs have a lower potential for abuse compared to the three schedules above, and include Benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax, sleeping pills such as Ambien, and longer-acting barbiturates like Phenobarbital.

Schedule V drugs include cough syrups with small amounts of codeine, and anti-convulsants like Neurontin and Lyrica.

So controlled or not, the safest bet is not to carry your medications this way at all. Unless you want to find yourself on the side of the road late on a bitter cold Saturday night while an officer sits in his warm car, deciding your fate.