Do Drugs Expire?

DO DRUGS HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE❓

💪🏼💊A drug’s potency, or strength, may degrade over a period of time📉

🧑🏻‍⚕️📆Prescription medications often remain potent for years after they expire. Researchers tested a variety of prescribed drugs that had expired over 30 years ago and found that 86% of the drugs still had 90% or more of their original potency❗️

🚑⏱Although many medications retain potency after expiration, the FDA does not require manufacturers to provide legitimate expiration dates. Instead, many drugs are arbitrarily assigned an expiration date between 1-5 years after production. Pharmaceutical companies may profit from allowing these inaccurately short expiration dates by making patients believe they need to buy new medication💰

🌡🔬MDMA is one of the few recreational drugs that does not appear to degrade for at least a period of 5 months5️⃣

🌬📉Cocaine, however loses stability over a period of 12 months - especially when it is stored at high temperatures or laced with other substances1️⃣2️⃣

💊📉LSD will lose a third or more of its potency after 3-12 months - especially if stored in liquid form or above room temperature3️⃣

❗️This summarizes the latest available research, however future studies are needed to precisely determine the chemical half lives of these and other drugs❗️