Moses - I concur wholeheartedly that this is a bureaucratic abomination.
On the bright side, I'm going to show this thread to my girlfriend who constantly rides my a$$ about the cabinet full of "expired" meds that I keep and access as needed. I made the point you made (and I'm no doc, so it didn't carry any weight): "so what if it's older, at worst it's just less potent ... so I'll take two [smirk]"
That set her off.
I still keep an eye on her when she's in one of her "Stalinesque purge" cleaning modes to make sure none of my drugs wind up in the garbage. Constant vigilance is the price I pay for my stocked medicine cabinet.
JP