While your desire to help others is admirable, giving prescription drugs to another person is illegal for both the giver and the receiver.  Besides just the act of giving and receiving these meds being illegal, if you gave prescription medications to someone and they had an adverse reaction, you could be held liable and find youself in deep legal trouble. 

There are good reasons why these laws were enacted and why no one has developed a program for distributing unused medications.  Prescription drugs can be dangerous.  Everyone's physical chemistry and reaction to meds is different.  No one but an individual's doctor, who knows their medical history, should ever give them a prescription drug.  Also, once a medication leaves the pharmacy, there is no way to guarantee its purity or that it hasn't been tampered with.  That makes redistributing unused drugs a dangerous proposition. Even hospitals and doctor's offices have to destroy unused medications.

As far as helping those who can't afford prescription meds, most drug companies have programs that provide the prescription drugs they manufacture free or at a reduced rate to people without insurance who can't afford it.  Different states also have programs these people may qualify for.  The easiest way I have found to access these programs is through PPARx's Web site.  You simply fill in your information and they tell you all of the programs you may be elligible for.  They even give you links to the forms you need to fill out. 

I know it's hard to destroy expensive medications, but it really is the only safe and legal option.  The best thing you can do for others who can't afford medications is to spread the word about PPARx and the programs that are available.

Karen