Pharmaceuticals warn customers to throw away medicines after the expiration date. This is in compliance to the US Law passed in 1979 requiring them to do so, and this date is supposed to be the time at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug. However, a study conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military in 1985 showed that 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date. “So the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state expired drugs are safe to take, even those that expired years ago. While it's true that the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and ...