Using someone else’s prescription medicine is a lot like playing Russian roulette – you might get away unscathed, and then again you might not. And it could have devastating consequences. Just because we see prescription medicines advertised on TV doesn’t mean they are safe for everyone. There are good reasons why you can’t buy them over the counter. A physician takes many factors into account before prescribing a medication for you, including your current condition, your past medical history, your other medications and the likely risks and benefits of the drug to you as an individual. After making this decision he or she will then explain how to take the medication, when to take it, how much and how long to take it, what else you can and can’t take with it, and what to expect after you take it – both the good and the bad. And after all that you’ll then get an information sheet at the pharmacy giving you all these details in printed form. Taking someone else’s prescription medication deprives you of all these considerations and leaves you vulnerable to a host of problems, some of which can be life-threatening or even fatal.  To learn more, in our next story, Emily reports on a deadly danger lurking in our medicine cabinets!  Studies show that 1 in 4 teens admit to have taken a medicine that was prescribed for someone else.   We hear from experts about seriousness of the problem.