How Can You Identify Pills With No Markings?
Healthline.com hosts a pill identifier that allows users to search a database using pill shape and color when a pill is not otherwise labeled. The search returns pictures of pills matching the criteria, which allows users to match their pills by sight. However, a person should never consume drugs without knowledge of what they are taking, and should never use drugs not prescribed to them.
Drugs.com also operates a pill search utility on its website. The Drugs.com pill identifier allows users to leave the pill marking field blank, but then returns results that include markings, in case markings are initially illegible or otherwise obscured. A pill that doesn’t have any markings on it may be a new drug that is not approved, or may have been mislabeled or altered, states the Food and Drug Administration.
In the United States, drugs that are sold in pill form are required by the government to be uniquely identifiable, as of 2004, states the FDA. The pill’s color, shape, size and imprint code must make the pill impossible to confuse with another medication. Different dosages also have to be determinable by information contained on the pill itself, as opposed to on the packaging. Drugs classified as homeopathic remedies are not subject to the stringent requirements imposed on traditional drugs; they only have to be marked as homeopathic and state their manufacturer.
