Safely dispose of unwanted medications on Saturday

From the Seattle Police Department:



On Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Seattle Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its 11th opportunity in six years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your pills for disposal to any of the city’s five precincts. You can find the drop-off site in your neighborhood by visiting our precinct map.    The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

Last September, Americans turned in 350 tons (over 702,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at more than 5,000 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,800 of its state and local law enforcement partners. Overall, in its 10 previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 5.5 million pounds—more than 2,750 tons—of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.  Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Seattle City Council committee adopts resolution supporting medicine return program

As part of a multi-pronged strategy for preventing prescription drug abuse, the Prevention WINS coalition, in collaboration with other drug prevention and environmental organizations, advocated for the King County Board of Health to adopt a secure medicine return program in 2013. The policy was adopted and this spring the medicine return program is expected to be implemented in pharmacies county-wide with pharmaceutical companies paying for it.

Yesterday, the Seattle City Council's public safety committee adopted a resolution supporting the medicine return program and encouraging pharmacies and police precincts to participate.

A RESOLUTION expressing the City’s support for an effective, countywide safe prescription drug disposal program, including controlled substances, and requesting local pharmacies and the Seattle Police Department to install drug disposal drop-boxes across the City.

 WHEREAS, in June 2015, the University of Washington (UW) Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute reported that drug-caused deaths involving heroin and/or methamphetamine peaked in King County in 2014, including a 58 percent increase in heroin deaths; and

WHEREAS, a 2013 study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicated that four out of five recent heroin users previously used opioid pain relievers such as oxycodone; and

WHEREAS, research suggests that these individuals switched to heroin because it is less expensive in the illegal marketplace than opioid pain relievers; and

WHEREAS, one component of a comprehensive public health approach to addressing drug abuse is the safe disposal of unused prescription drugs, including controlled substances; and

WHEREAS, safe disposal of unused prescription drugs, especially opioid pain relievers, reduces the risk of nonmedical use that might lead to drug abuse, including heroin addiction; and

WHEREAS, adolescents and young adults who experiment with nonmedical use of opioid pain relievers are most likely to obtain them from friends and family members who had received a prescription; and

WHEREAS, improper disposal of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, contributes to environmental degradation, as documented in a recent study that found traces of numerous prescription drugs in Puget Sound waters, as described in a 2016 article in the journal Environmental Pollution; and

WHEREAS, President Obama recently announced a number of new actions to address opioid abuse and proposed spending $1.1 billion in his FY 2017 budget for this purpose; and

WHEREAS, many pharmacies in the Seattle area have offered drug disposal drop-boxes for unused vitamins, over-the-counter medicines, and some prescription drugs; and

WHEREAS, per an October 2014 U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency rule, police departments and pharmacies may now provide safe disposal boxes for controlled substances like OxyContin, Vicodin, Valium, and Ritalin; and

WHEREAS, a growing number of police departments in King County are offering safe disposal of controlled substances, including Auburn, Bothell, Burien, Issaquah, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, Maple Valley, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, and Woodinville; and

WHEREAS, King County has launched a new effort to enhance safe prescription drug disposal efforts and a stewardship organization retained by King County will be providing funding for installation of drop-boxes, staff training, and collection of the drugs; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:

Section 1. The City Council and the Mayor ask that local pharmacies partner with King County to provide safe drug disposal drop-boxes at locations across the City.

Section 2. The City Council and the Mayor likewise request the Seattle Police Department to install prescription drug disposal drop-boxes at each of its five precincts.

Section 3. The City Council and the Mayor ask that other appropriate City agencies like the Department of Neighborhoods, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, and the Office for Civil Rights offer assistance to King County to help ensure that the County’s drop-box disposal program is designed to be culturally appropriate and accessible for marginalized populations, including limited English speakers.

We all have a role to play in preventing teen drug abuse

Thank you Group Health Pharmacy for posting the Prevention WINS Mind Your Meds posters in your waiting rooms!

All sectors of the community have a role to play to prevent prescription drug abuse

Last month, the President hosted a community discussion on the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic. The forum focused on developing and implementing responses that involve all sectors of the community. The President announced two initiatives to address this problem: prescriber training and improving access to treatment.

 More Americans now die every year from drug overdoses than they do in motor vehicle crashes and the majority of those overdoses involve prescription medications. Opioids are a class of prescription pain medications that includes hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, and methadone. Heroin belongs to the same class of drugs, and four in five heroin users started out by misusing prescription opioid pain medications.

 

This fact sheet was distributed through local pharmacies.

Locally, the Prevention WINS coalition and partners are doing their part to prevent prescription drug abuse. Prevention WINS reached out to area pharmacies asking them to post a flyer talking about preventing and reducing underage drug abuse by locking up and/or keeping track of  medications. The flyer has facts about teen prescription medicine abuse and resources for help.  Prevention WINS also asked the pharmacies to include a smaller version in the bags with the medicine dispensed.  Katterman's Pharmacy and the University Village QFC pharmacy agreed to post the flyers and include the inserts with the medications.   GroupHealth agreed to do this in nearly all their Washington GHC pharmacies.  The materials were distributed to the three pharmacies the last week of October.  Katterman's received 500 inserts, University QFC received 1,500 and Group Health received 3,000.

King County among handful of places in country with medicine return program

A recent article in the New York Times focuses on how it’s been a year since the DEA released its rule allowing pharmacies to take back leftover medicines, yet few pharmacies have implemented take-back programs.  Pharmacy medicine return sites provide a convenient way for people to dispose of unused and unwanted medications, decreasing the amount of medications that end up abused or in our waterways.

The article references the product stewardship law in King County that requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to finance and organize the take-back system, which provides the financing to allow pharmacies to host drop boxes. Prevention WINS members were strong supporters of the King County law and stand ready to publicize the program when it is up and running. 

One of the two plans submitted to King County, ReturnMeds LLC, will be fully implemented by mid-April 2016. The plan includes a list of places that will host drop boxes where people can return their unused and unwanted medications. In NE Seattle, the following locations likely will have drop boxes: