Vicodin Expiration question.

[PooSniper]

Hey I searched the forum for this but found very little: I found some Vicodin 5/500. However it is pretty old, one bottle says its expiration is 10-01 the other bottle says it expired like 16/98. These are pretty old obviously and I would expect them to decrease in potency. I have tried them and they got me high. However I was also still somewhat high on Adderall when I took them so, I would not expect the amount of Vicodin that I took to be a very good indication of potency.

My question is whether or not they lie about the expiration date for Vicodin like they do with Adderall. For example if your Adderall expired during 2005 it would still have like 2 years before it would start to really start losing potency. Yea so, if this is true I want to know how many years I can safely subtract from the time that the Vicodin has been losing potency.

[dude]

swim just told me that he stole his aunts perc's. They were 4 years old and worked GREAT

[Forthesevenlakes]

the opiates shouldnt degrade over time, to swim's knowledge. he once read a report on erowid of someone taking morphine that had aged 30 years and it was still good.

the danger, swim thinks, would be in the acetaminophen expiring. swim knows that aspirin, when it has aged a certain amount of time, can degrade into a potentially harmful compound. swim would not be surprised if acetaminophen did the same thing over time. so, if swiy is going to use old pills, be sure to do a CWE first.

[Bajeda]

Swim accidentally took oxycontin that was over 8 months expired and was fine. The drugs worked as normal.

I found an article before on prescription drug expiration dates that I thought was pretty useful. I'll post it below, and I suggest you take a looksie at it.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/up...ate1103a.shtml

Drug Expiration Dates - Do They Mean Anything?

With a splitting headache you reach into your medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the bottle has passed - two years ago. So, do you take it or don't you? If you decide to take the aspirin will it be a fatal mistake or will you simply continue to suffer from the headache?
This is a dilemma many people face in some way or another. A column published in Pyschopharmacology Today offers some advice.
It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does. Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug.
Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.
So the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state expired drugs are safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers. It's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.
Is the expiration date a marketing ploy by drug manufacturers, to keep you restocking your medicine cabinet and their pockets regularly? You can look at it that way. Or you can also look at it this way: The expiration dates are very conservative to ensure you get everything you paid for. And, really, if a drug manufacturer had to do expiration-date testing for longer periods it would slow their ability to bring you new and improved formulations.
The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma, consider what you've learned here. If the expiration date passed a few years ago and it's important that your drug is absolutely 100% effective, you might want to consider buying a new bottle. And if you have any questions about the safety or effectiveness of any drug, ask your pharmacist. He or she is a great resource when it comes to getting more information about your medications.

[Fantasian]

SWIF has used expired morphine before effectivly.

SWIF agrees with the above article.

[soma]

My kitten has used 7 year old hydrocodone without issue. Oddly enough, they seemed just as potent, too.

[big_erb]

The APAP in narc combos, after time, will become more toxic to the liver, the narc usually most of its potentcy long after expiration..

knowing that the liver can usually handle up to 4 grams of apap a day, I would cut this number in half for expired meds...