Can You Get Arrested for Using a Friend’s Prescription Drugs?

You had a horrible headache, so you reached out to a friend who lived nearby and asked if they had any pain medicine. You were really asking for over-the-counter options, but your friend said that they had something stronger to help. They had some hydrocodone from their latest surgery, and they’d be more than happy to give you a few pills to help with the pain.

You drove over to their house and took a couple of pills from them. They had an extra bottle, so they tossed them into it and sent you home to get rest. Unfortunately, you ended up getting stopped by the police on the way home because of your erratic driving. Despite saying you had a horrible headache, the officer noted the drugs on the seat and ended up arresting you for possessing prescription drugs that didn’t belong to you.

Can You Really Face Charges for Taking One or Two Pills from A Friend?

The truth is that you can. This is because a prescription medication is only intended for the person whose name is on the bottle. Prescriptions are regulated and controlled, because those drugs could be dangerous to people who they weren’t prescribed for. If you take them and don’t know about an interaction with another medication you take, you could accidentally overdose or end up with serious complications as a result.

If you’re stopped with drugs that belong to someone else, don’t talk to the police about why you have them or what you planned to do with them. Instead, ask to speak with your attorney, so you can protect yourself.