1. Attention Seniors: STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse
Making the Best Use of Your Medicines
Speaker Tips
YOU MAY WANT TO CUSTOMIZE THE FIRST SLIDE WITH THE DATE AND YOUR NAME
Introduce yourself and begin to let the audience know that you are interested in THEM. Tell the audience why you are interested in seniors. Example: “One day I was talking to my Mom and realized that she was taking SO many medicines. I got worried that maybe she wasn’t taking her medicines in a safe way, so I reviewed them with her and found that in fact, she was making some mistakes about how she was taking them. I realized that other seniors could be having similar problems, so I decided to start helping seniors take their medicine safely.”
Let the audience know that you are interested in them by finding out about your audience. Ask them why they decided to attend your presentation today, or other general questions to “break the ice.” The goal is to have the audience get comfortable with you, start responding to your questions and PARTICIPATE! Adult learners learn more when they are actively engaged and not just sitting and listening.
GLOBAL TIP: SPEAK TO THE LITERACY LEVEL OF YOUR AUDIENCE! Years of school, reading ability and English proficiency are all issues. It is MUCH better to use simple words and phrases, and practical examples and explanations (e.g. describing blood pressure in terms of a garden hose). If the audience does not understand the message you are trying to convey, the presentation will not be helpful. See: “Successful Communication with Older Adults: Enhancing the Learning Experience” in the Getting Started document.

2. Know Your Medicine
As long as I take the medication, it doesn’t matter at what time of day I take it.
True or False?
On days when I wake up feeling good, I don’t have to take my medication.
I had the same cold last year, so I can use the antibiotics I had left over for this cold.
Speaker Tip: Generate some excitement here! Get people to raise their hands to answer the questions. You want to get the audience involved to create an active learning environment, so make this a game. Remember, at this point in the presentation, it’s not about the “right” answer, it’s about generating interest and active participation.
To encourage participation:
Consider giving some “prize” to the first one or more who answer the question.
Consider giving ALL who answer a token (e.g., paperclip) or ticket that can be entered in a drawing at the end of the presentation or give a prize to the person(s) who have the most tokens at the end of the presentation.
Be creative and make it fun!
Ask some of the people who answered “True” to tell you why. Ask some of the people who answered “False” to tell you why. Make sure that you don’t aggressively tell them that they are “wrong” if they answer incorrectly.
Use this opportunity to begin teaching about safe medicine use and preventing prescription misuse and abuse. Present your educational message in a POSITIVE manner (“It’s best if you Because . . .; It’s safer if you ”) rather than a NEGATIVE manner (“That’s not right . . .” “You’re wrong . . .”)
Teaching Points:
The answer to all questions is FALSE. You must ALWAYS take medication as it is prescribed. If you want to take the medication differently than it is prescribed, check with the doctor BEFORE you make changes. If there are any questions about specific medicines, check with the doctor or pharmacist. You should NEVER save and use old medicine -- it is not SAFE! 2

3. We Take More Medicine as We Get Older
Taking medicine prescribed by your doctor is usually safe and effective.
But, as we age, our bodies change. We handle medicine differently than when we were younger.
Teaching Points:
Seniors are at risk for more medication-related problems because:
Your body changes as it ages.
Your body processes slow down and medicines take longer to get out of your body when you are older than they do in someone younger.
You are more likely to be taking many different medications.
The more medicines, the greater the chance for problems.
You are more likely to see more than one doctor (primary care doctor, specialists, dentists, etc.).
You are more likely to have other medical problems and diseases that can be affected by medications. [Example: if you have a stomach ulcer and take medicine that can cause an upset stomach, it might be worse for you because you already have an ulcer].
You are more likely to have physical difficulties -- like arthritis in your hands -- that could affect your ability to manage medications.
Arthritis could make it hard for you to open your medicine bottles and you might not take your medicines as they are prescribed because you can’t get the bottles open.
…So, it is important to be careful with medicine.

4. OOPS Sometimes we don’t take medicine
the way the doctor prescribes . . .
Speaker Tip: Ask the audience if they ALWAYS take their medications as prescribed. Do they finish all the antibiotic, or stop taking it when they feel better? If they have to take a medicine three times a day, do they remember to take every dose? Do they ever take “old” medicine that they had left from another illness? You might ask them “why” they don’t take medicine as prescribed to get them talking. Let them be honest -- we all are non-adherent! The important point is that they are recognizing that they may be non-adherent and that this leads to unsafe use of medicine.
Teaching Points:
With increased medication use comes increased chance for people to take their medications incorrectly – either accidentally or on purpose.
There are many people who are taking their medications in the wrong way.
People don’t take medications correctly for a many reasons. Some of these reasons are:
They can’t read the directions on the label
They don’t understand the directions for taking the medication
They forget to take the medication
They don’t understand how the medication will help their illness (e.g., how you have to take blood pressure medication routinely even though you can’t “tell” if your BP is elevated -- but when you take pain medicine, you know it works because the pain goes away)
They don’t believe medicine works
They are afraid of side effects or are experiencing side effects
They don’t have good communication with their doctor (they may not even speak the same language)
They think they know their body better than the doctor does
They listen to advice of friends and family, which may be wrong.
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide, ask the audience HOW they might be taking medicine in the wrong way. Depending on the response, ask them if they have seen other people do something that might not be safe with medicine. Then show the next slide.

5. What Are Some Ways We Take Medicine WRONG?
We take MORE
We take LESS
We take more OFTEN
We FORGET
We STOP before we are supposed to
We give OTHER people our medicine
We TAKE other people’s medicine
Speaker Tip: Acknowledge whatever “reasons” they have given for not taking medications as prescribed.
Teaching Points:
Most prescription drug MISUSE is accidental or unintentional.
May not have been given information needed for safe medicine use, or may have been given wrong information.
May have physical (low vision) or cognitive (memory) impairments that make taking medication difficult.
If seeing multiple physicians, care may not be coordinated. May not share information among prescribers which can result in duplication in therapy.
Low health literacy or limited language proficiency contributes to misuse.
Well meaning friends and/or relatives “share” their medications and offer advice that may not be in your best interest.
MISUSE occurs when a person does not take their medicines as prescribed by the doctor.
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide, ask the audience what “bad” things could happen if they don’t take their medicines correctly. Then show the next slide.
This is PRESCRIPTION DRUG MISUSE

6. Prescription Drug Misuse is UNSAFE
What can happen if you misuse Prescription Drugs?
You might not get well
You might actually get sicker
You might have to go to the doctor or the hospital
It might lead to prescription drug ABUSE
Speaker Tip: Did the audience come up with all these possible problems? Did they identify additional negative outcomes?
Teaching Points:
MISUSE refers to taking a medication other than as directed. It can lead to treatment failure, drug toxicity, increased health resource utilization (preventable hospitalizations and emergency room visits).
MISUSE is UNSAFE!!!
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide ask the audience if they know the difference between prescription drug MISUSE and ABUSE (based on the last bullet on this slide). What do they say? Encourage them to give their idea of what this means before you go to the next slide.

7. What if Someone Takes Prescription Drugs Wrong on PURPOSE?
More medicine than prescribed
More often than prescribed
For no medical reason
Or mixes medicine with alcohol or illegal drugs
Teaching Points:
Prescription drug ABUSE: Intentionally taking medications that are not medically necessary or for the experience or feeling a drug causes.
Taking medicine at a higher dose or more frequently than prescribed to get a bigger response
Taking medicine not prescribed for them to feel good, feel better or calm down
Taking medicine to “get high.”
The prevalence of prescription drug misuse and abuse in older adults may be as high as 11%.
Abuse of prescription medications is second only to alcohol abuse among older adults.
Experts estimate that prescription drug ABUSE is under-recognized and under-treated in older adults.
Make sure the audience understands the difference between prescription drug MISUSE and ABUSE.
MISUSE is taking a medication other than as directed, is usually accidental or unintentional, and can happen for many reasons.
ABUSE is INTENTIONALLY using medications that are not medically necessary or for the experience or feeling a drug causes.
Prescription drug MISUSE can lead to prescription drug ABUSE if the problems leading to the MISUSE are not detected and resolved.
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide, ask the audience what are the top three types of prescription drugs that are ABUSED most often. Then proceed to the next slide.
This is PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

8. Commonly Abused Medications
Opioid (narcotic) painkillers
Medicine for anxiety
Sleeping pills
Take these medicines only if YOUR doctor prescribed them for YOU and take them just as the doctor ordered!
Speaker Tip: Did the audience answer pain, anxiety and sleep meds? What did they identify? Ask them if they can name any specific pain meds, any anxiety meds and any sleep meds. Have they known anyone that has had problems with these medications?
Teaching Points: There are many examples of medications that can be abused. The following list identifies some that are commonly abused; this is NOT a complete list.
Examples of pain medicines that are commonly abused:
- Morphine (MS Contin® and others) Codeine (Tylenol® with codeine and others)
- Hydrocodone (Vicodin®, Lorco® and others) Oxycodone (OxyContin® and others)
Examples of medicines for anxiety that are commonly abused:
- Lorazepam (Ativan®) Alprazolam (Xanax®)
- Diazepam (Valium®) Clonazepam (Klonopin®)
Examples of sleep medicines that are commonly abused:
- Zolpidem (Ambien®) Zalepon (Sonata®)
- Temazepam (Restoril®)
DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL WITH THESE MEDICATIONS
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide ask the audience what might be some consequences (bad things that might happen) if someone ABUSES prescription medications. After you get their answers, go to the next slide.

9. Prescription Drug Abuse is UNSAFE
Health gets worse
Higher risk of accidents
Higher risk of falls and injuries
Serious side effects
Physical dependence and addiction
Speaker Tip: Did the audience come up with all of these negative consequences? You might reference any public figures that have recently been in the news related to prescription drug mishaps to make it current and relevant.
Teaching Points:
People may think that their medication is safe for them because a doctor prescribed it. But taking too much of a medicine or taking it in ways other than how the doctor prescribed it is NOT safe.
Older adults may have serious problems with prescription drug ABUSE due to several factors:
The older body cannot breakdown medicines or get rid of them as easily as younger people, so the medicine remains in the body for a longer time.
Older brains are more sensitive to the effects of many medications and may be at greater risk for harmful effects (memory problems and coordination).
Excessive use (ABUSE) of certain medications may have harmful effects on the heart and other organs of the body.
Prescription drug abuse can lead to dependence or addiction
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide ask the audience if they have any ideas about how to “spot” someone who might be abusing prescription drugs.

10. Recognizing Prescription Drug Abuse
Look for these signs . . .
Sudden change in behavior
Withdrawal from family, friends, activities
Rapid increase in the amount of medicine that is needed
Very frequent refills
“Doctor shopping” to get several prescriptions for the same medicine
Teaching Points:
There is not one specific “test” to screen for drug ABUSE in older adults. In order to identify a problem, doctors need to question patients and family and/or caregivers to identify possible issues. Family and friends can help by recognizing the signs of potential problems and know which drugs have the potential for abuse.
Many of the symptoms of prescription drug ABUSE are vague and commonly associated with aging or other diseases, making it even harder to detect in older adults. Some of these symptoms are shaky hands, mood swings, balance issues, disorientation and memory loss.
Other behaviors that are suggestive of prescription drug ABUSE:
Complaining about physicians who will not write prescriptions for preferred medications;
Sleeping during the day;
Paying for medications out-of-pocket rather than using prescription drug insurance;
Unexplained injuries which might be the result of excessive sedation;
Frequently “losing” medications or having them “stolen” in order to justify additional refills;
People who are medication abusers often go to many different doctors to get prescriptions for the same medication. One example reported was a patient in Georgia who got prescriptions for 3655 oxycodone tablets from 58 different doctors!

11. How to Help Someone Abusing Prescription Drugs
Get them to talk to a doctor, counselor or other health professional
Encourage them to be honest about exactly how they are taking their medications
The sooner, the better
Speaker Tip: Ask the audience if they have known anyone who had a problem with prescription medications. What happened? You may not get any response here, as drug abuse can be a sensitive subject. Ask the audience what they would do if they thought a friend or family member was having a problem with prescription medicine.
Teaching Points:
The most important step is to encourage the person to get help, and the sooner the better, in order to prevent some of the negative consequences that we talked about earlier (accidents, falls, etc.).

12. STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse by
Be Part of the Solution
STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse by
Safely
Taking
All
Medicine
Properly
Teaching Points:
The best way to STAMP out prescription drug MISUSE and ABUSE is prevention -- by taking medicine safely and EXACTLY as prescribed by your doctors.
Safely
Taking
All
Medicine
Properly
Speaker Tip: Before you go to the next three slides, ask the audience for some things they could do to make taking medicine safer. Encourage the audience to give you answers. If you have a white board or flip chart, consider writing down the answers that the audience gives you. Reward them for participation!

13. How to . . . STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse
Keep an up-to-date list of all your medicines – prescription and over-the-counter
Take your medicine list to ALL your medical appointments: doctor, dentist, emergency room, hospital stays, and share with your pharmacist
Take your medicine EXACTLY as prescribed
Only use the medicine for the reason it was prescribed
Speaker Tip: This is the first of three KEY slides of takeaway points, so emphasize the information. The information on these 3 slides is included in the “Key Messages” handout.
If the audience suggested some ideas for making medicine use safer and you wrote them down, check them off the list as you go through the slides.
Teaching Points:
Keep an up-to-date medicine list. Tell the audience you will give them a form to record all their medications: “Personal Medication List” Handout.
Take your medicine list to ALL your medical appointments: doctor, dentist, emergency room visits and hospital stays and share the list with your pharmacist.
Frequently there is no or poor coordination of care among different health care professionals and sometimes more than one doctor may prescribe the same medication -- this is duplicate therapy. [Use examples: e.g., your doctor prescribes a pain medicine for your arthritis and your dentist prescribes a pain medicine for your toothache). Are they the same medicine? Can you take both together? Problems might not occur if each prescriber had a copy of your medicine list AND you get all your prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy.
Take your medicine EXACTLY as prescribed. Make sure you understand how the medicine is going to help you and how you will know it is working. If you think you need to change your dose or stop your medicine, ask your doctor BEFORE you do it. Too little or too much medicine could cause a problem. You might have a serious side effect, you may not get well, or you might get sicker.
Use the medicine only for the reason it was prescribed. Don’t second guess if an old medicine will work for what is wrong now. Your condition may be different than before and your body may have changed so the old medicine may not be safe to use.

14. More STAMP Out Tips
If you are not sure how to take a medicine, ask your doctor or pharmacist
Ask your doctor or pharmacist about side effects to watch out for and interactions with other medications
Ask how the medicine will affect driving and other daily activities
Talk with your doctor BEFORE you change a dose or stop taking a medicine
Speaker Tip: This is the second of three KEY slides of takeaway points, so emphasize the information. The information on these 3 slides is included in the “Key Messages” handout.
If the audience suggested some ideas for making medicine use safer and you wrote them down, check them off the list as you go through the slides.
Teaching Points:
Tell the audience you will give them a form that will help them get all their questions about a new medicine answered by their doctor and pharmacist BEFORE they start to take it: “I Have A New Medicine” Handout. Encourage the audience to take this form to all doctor visits and have the doctor go over all the information with them.
Make sure you know how to take all your medicines. Ask your doctor or pharmacist. ASK, ASK, ASK! There is no such thing as a silly question. Ask you doctor to write down all information and instructions for you, or have a family member or friend to go with you to doctor appointments to you write down all the information. If someone picks up your prescription from the pharmacy, you can call the pharmacist to ask your questions.
Ask the pharmacist if there are devices or medication aids that will help you take medications correctly.

15. More STAMP Out Tips
Do not crush or break pills without checking with your doctor or pharmacist
Don’t use someone else’s medicine
Don’t share your medicine with anyone else
Don’t mix your medicines with alcohol
Don’t be afraid to ask for help in organizing your medicines
Schedule a yearly “medication check-up” with your doctor and pharmacist
Speaker Tip: This is the last of three KEY slides of takeaway points so emphasize the information. The information is included in the “Key Messages” handout.
If the audience suggested some ideas for making medicine use safer and you wrote them down, check them off the list as you go through the slides. Consider rewarding those who participated.
Teaching Points:
Do not crush or break pills without checking with your doctor or pharmacist. Breaking or crushing some tablets can be very dangerous if the tablets are formulated to release medicine over a period of hours. If you break the tablet, you get a blast of medicine at once and it can lead to an overdose.
Don’t use someone else’s medicine. Their body is not YOUR body and medications are prescribed based on a specific person’s body systems. Using someone else’s medicine is like using a Volkswagen tire on a Ford truck -- they are both tires, but the cars are very different and really need different tires to be safe.
Don’t share your medicine with anyone else. You don’t want to be responsible for someone getting injured or sick because you gave them YOUR medicine! Remember, YOUR body is not THEIR body.
Don’t mix your medicines with alcohol. Alcohol can make certain drug effects worse and can put you at risk for accidents and injury.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help in organizing your medicines. Ask a family member, friend or your pharmacist!
Schedule a yearly “medication check-up” with your primary care doctor and pharmacist. Bring your complete medication list. Make sure your pharmacist is aware of any medications that your doctor has stopped so the pharmacist can keep their record of your medicines up-to-date.

16. And Finally. . . CLEAN OUT YOUR MEDICINE CABINET!!
If you want to help fight
Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse
CLEAN OUT YOUR
MEDICINE
CABINET!!
Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse.
Speaker Tip: Ask the audience: “When was the last time you cleaned out your medicine cabinet? Did you throw away many things? Did you keep old medicine? Why?” It will be interesting to hear what they say.

17. The Medicine Cabinet can be DANGEROUS
Accidental poisonings, abuse and misuse often occur when people store old medications in their homes
A majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet
You may become a target for theft or scams by those looking for drugs to abuse
Teaching Points:
Poisonings, abuse, and misuse often occur when people store old medications in their homes.
Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.
When you clean out your medicine cabinet, you won’t be stockpiling medicine and you won’t be as much of a target for theft. Any visitor to your home looking for medications to abuse or to experiment with may take drugs from your medicine cabinet. This is especially true for the medications we talked about that are commonly abused: pain killers, and drugs for anxiety and sleep. They could be using the medicines themselves or they may sell them or give them to someone else. No matter what, you don’t want to be part of the PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE problem
At least once a year, empty your medicine cabinet.
Get rid of all expired medicine. Expired medicine may not work AND may actually be harmful.
Get rid of all medications that you no longer take. There is no reason to keep this old medicine.
When you clean out your medicine cabinet, you reduce the chance of accidental poisoning of younger children. Every year more than 71,000 children are seen in the emergency room for accidental overdoses of prescription medications and over-the- counter drugs. Source:
Always keep your medications out of reach of children and pets.
Speaker Tip: Before going to the next slide ask the audience: “How do you get rid of old medicines?” “What do you do with it?” After you get some answers (expect “throw it in the trash,” “flush it down the toilet,” “put it down the sink”), go to the next slide.

18. Prevent Poisonings, Misuse & Abuse and Protect the Environment
Properly dispose of unused/expired medicine
DO NOT FLUSH unused medications
DO NOT POUR them down a sink or drain
Take advantage of community drug take-back programs that allow the you to bring unused drugs to a central location for proper disposal
Teaching Points:
Is anyone surprised by the information on this slide? Don’t flush medicine down the toilet and don’t put it down the drain. Why do you think we shouldn’t do that?
Flushing and pouring medicine into our water system not only contaminates our drinking water, but pollutes the earth and endangers wildlife. More than 100 different medications have been found in lakes, rivers and streams throughout the world! And the main way they got there was from disposing of medication in the toilet and the sink. Traces of these medications have been found in drinking water in the United States.
It’s our job to stop this source of pollution and help to keep the world’s water safe! Safety starts with YOU!
Properly disposing of unused or expired medicines protects people, pets and other animals.
Learn the safe way to dispose of medicines and take advantage of neighborhood take-back programs for unused medicines (explain what this is).
Speaker Tip: There is a Handout from the FDA on “How to Dispose of Unused Medicines.” You may want to provide this to your audience or answer questions about this. You may want to discuss the appropriate way to dispose of medications in the home. Explain what a community take-back program is.
Remind them that they should remove their name from discarded prescription bottles for safety and privacy.

19. It’s Up to You to STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse
Why don’t you start today?
Speaker Tip: Ask the audience what they are going to do to make their medication use safer and to prevent prescription drug misuse and abuse.

20. For More Information
Prescription and Illicit Drug Abuse: Information on older adults, tips on prevention, treatment
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Referral Line HELP (4357)
Find a Senior Care Pharmacist: Specializing in the medication needs of older adults
Describe the information available on the web sites listed.

21. Medication Disposal DisposeMyMeds.org Drug Take Back Network
An online resource to help find medication disposal programs at the local independent community pharmacy near you
Drug Take Back Network
Information on permanent and regularly recurring drug take-back events
SMARxT Disposal™
Safeguard My Meds.org
Describe the information available on the web sites listed.
SMARXT DISPOSAL is a unique public-private partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America for responsible medication disposal.
Safeguard My Meds is a national educational program from the National Community Pharmacists Association and Purdue Pharma to increase awareness about the importance of safe storage and disposal of prescription medicine in an effort to reduce the risk of misuse and abuse.

22. STAMP OUT Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse Tool Kit
Program is brought to you by The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP). STAMP OUT was developed by the ASCP Foundation and supported by an educational grant from Purdue Pharma L.P
The STAMP Out Prescription Drug Abuse and Misuse program was developed by the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation, and funded by an educational grant from Purdue Pharma. 22

23. STAMP Out Prescription Drug Misuse & Abuse
QUESTIONS?
Access the Tool Kit at

24. What Did You Learn Today?
Which WORDS below complete the medication SAFETY TIPS on the next slides?
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
Use each word only once!
Speaker Tip:
You can pass out the Self-Assessment Quiz (“What Did You Learn Today?”), give the audience time to complete, then review the answers using the next slides. Or you can just use the slides, giving the audience time to think about the answer between questions.
Whether showing the slides or using the printed Self-Assessment Quiz, make sure you read the statements and possible answers OUT LOUD to the audience. Remember, literacy may be a issue. Someone who cannot read may be able to answer if the information is read out loud.
There are six slides, with two questions on each slide. The statement will appear with the missing word first. Give the audience time to think and answer. When you are ready, click the slide and the statement will be filled in with the correct answer. Make sure that everyone understands the correct statement. If they have identified a wrong selection, use the opportunity to review the material and teach the correct SAFE medication practice. This is your LAST opportunity to make sure they come away with the key messages from this presentation.
Teaching Points:
What follows are slides with statements about information that you learned today. Each statement has a missing word. There is also a list of words that are the missing in the statements. Pick the correct “missing” word for each statement. Each word is used only once.

25. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
1. I will take my medicine ________ as my doctor prescribed it. 1. I will take my medicine EXACTLY as my doctor prescribed it. 2. Taking medicine for non-medical reasons is prescription drug ______. 2. Taking medicine for non-medical reasons is prescription drug ABUSE.
Speaker Tip:
If you have been rewarding your audience for participation (with a token or prize), this is a GREAT way to wind up this process! Reward them for their participation and SUCCESS at learning how to use their medications more safely.

26. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
3. I will ____ share my medicines with anyone else. 3. I will NOT share my medicines with anyone else. 4. I will keep an up-to-date medicine ____. 4. I will keep an up-to-date medicine LIST.

27. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
5. I will take my medicine for the _______ it was prescribed. 5. I will take my medicine for the REASON it was prescribed. 6. I will go through my medicine cabinet and get rid of ________ medicines at least once a year. 6. I will go through my medicine cabinet and get rid of EXPIRED medicines at least once a year.

28. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
7. Taking medicine differently than prescribed is prescription drug _______. 7. Taking medicine differently than prescribed is prescription drug MISUSE. 8. I will not mix my medicines with ________. 8. I will not mix my medicines with ALCOHOL.

29. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
9. I will get a “medicine check-up” with my doctor and pharmacist every _____. 9. I will get a “medicine check-up” with my doctor and pharmacist every YEAR. 10. I will check with my doctor _______ making any changes in how I take my medicine. 10. I will check with my doctor BEFORE making any changes in how I take my medicine.

30. What Did You Learn Today? Choose from these Words:
List Exactly All Before Reason Crush
Expired Alcohol Not Year Abuse Misuse
11. I will take my current medicine list to ___ my doctors and health care providers. 11. I will take my current medicine list to ALL my doctors and health care providers. 12. Do not _______ medications without checking with your pharmacist. 12. Do not CRUSH medications without checking with your pharmacist.