Quote Quoting miska
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My question involves criminal law for the state of: Indiana
I am on house arrest. During this time I had surgery and was prescribed hydrocodone. The prescription says drug expires Aug. 2017. No refills. I had taken 3 total 3 days in a row. I had a Doctors appt. coming up but I was in pain. I had a urine drug screen showing positive for hydrocodone. They want to revoke my house arrest because they said it was illegal for me take an expired prescription. Do I understand correctly, the expiration date is provided by the drug manufacturer and pharmacy ? The date is their guarantee the drug is still at its full potential. The expiration date also relieves them of liability if taken after the expiration date. Thank You.
You did not state a time table, which is resulting in some confusion in the posts above.

If you are being routinely drug tested during your probation, it stands to reason that you have a substance abuse history and have been ordered not to use certain drugs during your probation. You may also be ordered to get permission from your probation or parole officer before taking a controlled substance, even with a prescription. Your probation or parole officer does not care about the date the medication expires -- the issue is that this is apparently a very old prescription.

If we are to assume that you had surgery and had permission to take pain medication in association with the surgery, the problem would be that you held onto medication for some undisclosed period of time and then resumed taking it without a new prescription. Your parole or probation officer has no way of knowing if you in fact held onto some medication for weeks or months after your initial recovery from the surgery, or if you bought some hydrocodone on the street.

As you saw a doctor after taking the medication, perhaps your doctor can provide documentation that you had a significant pain condition that warranted your taking the medication during the days leading up to the appointment. That's not necessarily going to resolve the issue, but it may help.