I am new at this site. I know you posted quite awhile ago, but wanted to add my thoughts. I am a retired nurse. My husband and I both take meds that we need daily. Between the insurance companies and doctors afraid of the government you have to sorta have a game plan to take care of you and your family. In my case, we get our meds for 90 days thru the mail. We do have a small copay. It is possible to save back a few pills by ordering the next prescription a few days early.
However, this year when we went to see our doctor for our annual visit, he gave us our normal prescriptions like always. I then asked if he would give me extra prescriptions for all of our drugs. Of course, he wanted to know why. I DID NOT SAY THE WORD 'PREPPER.' I saw no reason to get that subject on the table unless it was necessary. Often people either laugh or just think you're nuts.
I told him that I was concerned about having enough medicines, in case, there was some sort of problem like Hurricane Katrina, reminding him that people were left without medicine, couldn't find their doctors, their medical records were under 8 feet of flood water, and even finding a drug store with enough drugs was tough for several weeks. I reminded him of the on and off drug shortages we have here in the US. I recently had a friend who was very nervous whether her chemo drugs would be available when she needed them this year. I told him that even our government was now saying everyone should have a personal 7 days of supplies in case of a disaster. This is up from the 72 hours they had always said to have. I explained I had researched and knew I could get drugs from overseas without a prescription, but would perfer to play it safe. I had found a Canadian pharmacy that I knew was legal and a member of the professional pharmacy board of Canada. I explained I would order my drugs from Canada, would not ask for any sort of narcotic or controlled drug that would be a red flag to our government. I explained I had a well thoughtout plan for storing and rotating my medicines. He asked if I wanted refills with that. So my husband and I left his office with our normal prescriptions and extra prescriptions for an extra year.
I did my homework. I spent many hours checking Canadian pharmancies, calling their profession accediation (sp?) board. Then I called the pharmacy a couple of times. Their people took their time explaining how they work. It was a good experience, they even doubled the strenght on one of my husband's meds. Same cost and we can just cut the pills in half, giving us double the amount. Never do this, unless you check with your doctor. Some meds are time release or coated and CAN NOT BE DIVIDED.
The drugs from Canada are not covered by my insurance. I had to pay, most were cheaper than paying out of pocket here in the US, but one actually was more expensive. It will be several hundred dollars each time I order because we have about nine prescriptions. I will be ordering refills every 90 days three more times. That is a whole year of medicines.
They will be rotated with my regular prescriptions. They are stored in a cool, dark, safe place. Actually, these pills should be safe and effective for many years if they are just stored and not rotated. The expiration dates are not true expiration dates. If stored in their orginal packaging and kept cool and out of the light they should be good for many, many years. The only exception is Tetecycline......DO NOT TAKE PAST EXPIRATION DATE, CAN BE DANGEROUS. However, do your own research on this. I am not a doctor or a drug expert.
I hesitate to even write about buying antibiotics. These are taken for different infections and can be extremely dangerous. As a nurse, I don't think I will ever know enough about them to feel comfort giving them to my family. But if TSHTF, difficult decisions will have to be made. For antibotics, most are the exact same as the ones sold for fish...yea...for fish. Somewhere I read never take dog medicines......not sure why, because I know my pal's dog takes Lasix......a human medicine. Anyway, back to the fish meds. Not only are they the same as human medicine but much cheaper and you don't need a prescription. Usually these drugs will need to be ordered, I couldn't find them in stores. I was told they quite selling them because people were buying them for human use. Once again I got on the computer and did lots of research before finding a vet supply company. After reading web sites from a doctor and a nurse who are into prepping, I placed my order from a company in Calif, I, also, order syringes and suture kits. I can not say it enough.... YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IF YOU GIVE ANTIBIOTIC TO YOUR FAMILY. You need to know how they will react with other medicines, the side effects. Let me write it in black and white...anytime you give or take any medicine you take a chance on a bad reaction or death!
There are still other animal medicines that are safe for humans, but I haven't gotten to research them yet. I understand there is a salve for drawing out boils, and a liquid for washing open wounds. Talk to your vet.
Always try over the counter medicines before going to prescriptions. Generic drugs can be bought at WalMart, dollar stores and such. Just compare them to the name brand ones. You can slowly build up a nice little pharmacy. They even sell something to replace a loose dental crown or for a temporary filling. Check out Amazon, they sell everything.
Sorry, this was much longer than I intended. Hope it is informative.