Safe Disposal of Prescription Drugs is the Best Medicine

Safe Disposal of Prescription Drugs is the Best Medicine

Bette Korber

Opioid addiction in our country has become a serious epidemic, with overdose the leading cause of death among Americans under 50, and overdose deaths in our country are rapidly increasing (2016 exceeded 59,000).  Friends whose lives have been touched by this epidemic have left me grieving, and wishing I could help. I recently discovered a way I could take a small step towards fighting back against this epidemic, and simultaneously help with other public health and the environmental problems -- it is proper disposal of unused medications. While some people already know about this, many don’t, and I’m sharing it here hoping to spread the word.

It turns out that in many communities it is easy to get rid of old pills and tablets, as there are drop boxes available for unused prescription medications. Three such drop-offs are available near where I live in New Mexico, but there were obstacles for me regarding using them. The first obstacle was the big one: I was clueless, and had to discover they existed. Next, I had to figure out their locations.

Here is my story. I had hip surgery last spring, and had an oxycodone prescription to ease the pain. A swift recovery left a near full bottle of narcotic opioids sitting awkwardly in my medicine chest.  I searched the web for tips about getting rid of it, but didn’t key onto the right search terms. I asked many friends, and at my doc’s office, but nobody knew.  One website suggested I flush the pills down the toilet, another to bundle them in a bag of used cat litter and leave it in the trash. These strategies would have gotten the drug out of my home, but I’m a biologist, and don’t sit well with flushing bioactive agents out into the world. So my oxycodone got pushed back into the shadowy netherworld of my medicine cabinet, onto a heap of not-quite-empty expired prescription bottles.

This bugged me.  There are many good reasons why one shouldn’t leave old unused meds around the house.   The most compelling is that abused prescription drugs fuel the opioid epidemic. But this is not the only issue. There is also accidental poisoning, and the fact that a very common path to suicide is by raiding the medicine cabinet.

But opioids are not the only issue. Misused antibiotics lead to antibiotic resistant pathogens. People often stop taking antibiotics when they start feeling better, before they’ve finished their prescribed course, and they save leftover pills. Sometimes they share them later with friends or family who are under-the-weather. As a scientist who has worked on the emergence of drug resistant tuberculosis, I cannot say strongly enough what a bad idea this is.  Partial antibiotic courses select for drug resistant bugs, and these are nightmares in the making.  But while everyone should always take their full antibiotic course, the reality is sometimes people don’t, and so many folks have some unused antibiotics tucked away on the shelf.  Scientists are just beginning to explore the impact of low amounts of antibiotics, levels found in nature due to our agricultural and human waste, on selection for antibiotic resistant bacteria.  

While the medications we take can (and do) make their way into the world through our body’s waste, that no excuse for compounding the problem by just tossing out unused medications.  Our western rivers and streams have plenty to be anxious about, still we shouldn’t be dosing them with our leftover Zoloft. 

I finally thought to ask my pharmacist what to do about my oxycodone – at last, someone who knew exactly what to do!  It turns out that our local police station in Los Alamos has a drop box for unused drugs. It is shaped like a mailbox, and the tossed medications are retrieved and destroyed.  It is available year round during regular working hours. It’s a great service! Once I knew what I was looking for, I learned nearby Santa Fe has two such drop boxes, at a police station and a fire station. 

Now, when I open my much cleaner medicine cabinet it is a guilt-free experience.  More people need this pleasure.

Some simple steps to look into this issue locally:

1  1) There is a web tool to track down regional disposal sights. It misses some, but it’s a start.  Your pharmacist, doctor, or local police office also might know.  http://rxdrugdropbox.org/map-search/

2  2) If you find a drop site, gather up your old bottles of prescription pills and tablets, black out your name for privacy, and drop them! Learn how it works, and then tell your friends.

3  3) If the place that hosts the local drop box doesn’t mind, make a flyer about the service, and ask local pharmacies to post it.  Many people don’t even know to ask, so I reckon strategically placed flyers could enlighten. Police officers (particularly the police chief in Los Alamos, what a guy!) and pharmacies in my town were very supportive of this. I am proud to say that there are now pictures of my messy medicine cabinet, in that flyer I enclosed in this post, on display around my towns of Los Alamos and Santa Fe.  I was shy about asking at first, but everyone's been great.

4  4) If you do not have a drug drop box in your community, and you’re motivated, you can help your town to get one.  The boxes are expensive ($900), but the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators have a grant program, and a local, top law enforcement official can apply for one for free.  Alternatively, communities can raise the funds for a box. If you think it’s important for your community, make a case for it.  http://rxdrugdropbox.org/about-naddi/

5  5) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is coming up, Oct. 28, 2017.  Law enforcement agencies across the country participate.  This could particularly help in rural communities with no drop boxes. https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/