PILL BOTTLE PERISHABLES

Here’s the scenario: It’s 5:30 a.m. and you go to the fridge to grab some milk, only to notice it expired a day ago. You hear a disturbance from the other room and, soon, in rushes your wife in a panic, “Don’t drink that! It’s gone bad!” Without even stopping to breathe, she grabs the milk and pours it down the drain.

In the household, if you go to the medicine cabinet, you’ll find medications that expired years ago. Why is it that food is immediately thrown out the minute it goes beyond the expiration date, but we keep expired medications “just in case?” Perhaps the easy answer is that we can always go to the store and get another gallon of milk before the sun comes up. The more challenging answer is that you kept your wife up all night hacking up a lung, and she told you three days ago to go to the doctor (and you