Take Back your Meds, a coalition of 270 organizations from across Washington, supports medicine take back programs aimed at reducing access to unwanted medicines, risk of poisoning and environmental contamination. Coalition members include law enforcement and environmental groups, medical organizations and wastewater agencies, working family and natural resources organizations. Over the last several years, the coalition has successfully worked to increase awareness of the problem of unwanted medications and improper disposal methods. Coalition members have taken the initiative (and supported the cost) of operating temporary take back programs in 17 of Washington’s 39 counties, collecting over 160,000 pounds of medicines. Additionally, they have also dedicated significant time and effort to pass legislation to create a secure, statewide medicine take-back program provided by pharmaceutical manufacturers. While legislation has not yet been passed, these efforts did garner extensive media coverage, with over 40 articles published in 2012 alone, reinforcing the importance of this issue.
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