Maine's Disposal plan for drugs
to expand
Maine’s first-in-the-nation mail-in prescription drug disposal
program, launched in 2007, has been funded for another two years and
plans to expand its presence and impact significantly.
The program aims to protect public health and the environment by
safely disposing of unused prescription drugs.
Prepaid, tamper-resistant envelopes available at drugstores, medical
offices, community agencies and other sites around the state allow
consumers to pack up their unneeded medications — confidentially and at
no charge — and mail the drugs away to be destroyed.
“If you flush medications down the toilet or discard them in the
trash, they will find their way back into our water supply or our ground
soil,” said Len Kaye, director of the University of Maine Center on
Aging, where the program is managed. “And when drugs are stockpiled in
people’s homes, they become a danger to children and older adults who
may accidentally ingest them.”
Additionally, Kaye said, some medications, such as painkillers and
anti-anxiety drugs, have a high potential for abuse and may be stolen
for illicit use and street sales.
In 2007, the
Safe Medicine Disposal for ME program received startup
funding through a grant from the federal Environmental Protection
Agency. Since then, more than 1,500 pounds of unused and unwanted
medicines have been mailed by 3,300 Maine households to the Westbrook
office of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. Painkillers, anti-anxiety
drugs, antidepressants, and cardiac drugs make up about 25 percent of
the returns, Kaye said.
The medications are stored securely at the MDEA site until they are
incinerated.
For the next two years, the program will operate with $150,000 from
the Fund for Healthy Maine, a public health fund fed by the 1999
settlement between states and the tobacco industry.
In the coming weeks and months, 20,000 prepaid mailers will be
distributed to more than 100 drugstores and other sites throughout the
state. Each envelope will include instructions for safely packaging and
mailing away unwanted medications — pills, patches, aerosols and
liquids. An optional survey will help program officials understand where
the medicines are coming from and why they were not used.
It is important to understand why prescription drugs accumulate in
people’s homes, Kaye said. Many people discontinue their medications
because of allergic reactions or other complications. Strong pain
medications may not be needed if discomfort is not severe. In other
cases, people die and family members must dispose of unused medicines,
he said.
Bangor pharmacist Bill Miller said it is clear that doctors too often
prescribe large quantities of medications when a smaller quantity would
be more appropriate. Many of the medications returned so far come from
90-day supplies of drugs that patients may be allergic to or that are
ineffective, he said. Hospice patients who die ac-count for many other
drug returns.
“In many cases it would be more appropriate for a physician to write
a 10-day supply,” Miller said. “It’s a sin, the amount of drugs that get
thrown out.”
Kaye said the program has not been active long enough to measure its
effectiveness at reducing crime, overdoses, and the level of medications
and metabolites found in Maine’s water bodies and the creatures who live
there.
The Safe Medicine Disposal for ME program was formed in partnership
with the Maine Department of Public Safety, state and federal drug
enforcement agencies, the state Department of Health and Human Services,
the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Postal
Service.
A copyright article from the Bangor
Daily News, Tuesday, July 21, 2009
by Meg Haskell of the
BDN Staff.
http://www.safemeddisposal.com/
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