Store your prescription painkillers and other medications in a lockbox, safe, or locked medicine cabinet (such as a file cabinet) to prevent misuse or accidental use. Many companies offer lockable medication storage options for purchase.

If you can’t securely lock up your medications, the next best thing is to keeping them out of sight and out of reach. This can prevent them from falling into the hands of someone who wants to abuse them. It can also prevent someone in your house from accidentally taking the wrong medication, and from the hands of curious children.

Unused medications are a disaster waiting to be found. That’s why it’s very important to safely dispose of unneeded and expired prescriptions. Visit the Take Back page to find a medication drop box near you.

Do not throw away medication in the trash or flush them down the toilet.

• Store at room temperature unless otherwise directed.

• Don’t check drugs when flying. Put them in your carry-on luggage.

• Don’t put drugs in the trunk when driving. Keep them in the car when driving and take them with you when you park.

• Choose overnight shipping for mail-order drugs. If you work, have the medication shipped to your office. An FDA study from 1995 found that the interior temperature of a black mailbox can reach as high as 136 degrees when the ambient air temperature was 101 degrees.

• Take special care to when storing insulins and other injectables because they are supposed to be refrigerated. These medicines are especially vulnerable to extreme temperatures.

• If you see a change in color or texture, do not consume.