Have you actually ever counted those little pills in the bottle you get from the pharmacy? It might be time to start counting.

You might be thinking “Who does that?” But I just talked to someone who did, and found that they were getting shorted on their pain medication. Nancy (yes, a fake name) just had surgery and thus is not a “regular” pain medication user. I guess if you were on a medication consistently, you would notice if your pills ran out too early. But if the pharmacy can skim a pill or two a bottle on one-time prescriptions, who will notice? Have you seen the price of pain medication lately? What’s even scarier, have you seen the street price?

Which leads me to my next point … keep counting. Those prescription pain killers have become tremendously popular with the teens. If teen-agers or young adults have access to your meds, you might want to occasionally check that old bottle (why do we keep the stuff, anyway? We know we’re not supposed to, but we do …) to make sure it’s not evaporating. You think you’re the wise parent constantly checking the liquor cabinet to make sure those bottles aren’t evaporating or getting watered down, when we don’t realize the popularity and accessibility of prescription meds. And unfortunately, our kids don’t always take danger seriously.