[Pharmwaste] drug drop-off program in Maine

[Tenace, Laurie]

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4358434.html 
Prescription drug drop-off program coming
 By AMY CALDER
Staff Writer
  
10/10/2007

WATERVILLE -- The powerful effects of prescription drugs on the environment
and an increase in the illegal use of such drugs prompted Ross Nason to
action.
The environmental planner for Kennebec Valley Council of Governments is
launching a prescription drug drop-off program for people who want to
properly dispose of unwanted, unused or outdated drugs. Organizers are
piggy-backing the event on a regularly-scheduled hazardous waste drop-off
day.

>From 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 20, residents of Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield,
Oakland, Rome, Sidney, China and Benton may bring their hazardous waste,
including prescription drugs, to the area of the bus terminal off Airport
Road.

They must first register by calling the town office in the community in which
they live to inform officials of items they plan to bring to the drop-off and
learn about fees, if applicable, according to Nason. He said it is extremely
important that medicines be left in their original containers and no items be
mixed with others.

Nason is working with Waterville and Oakland police, a pharmacist and nursing
student from Inland Hospital, the state Department of Environmental
Protection and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency on the program, which was funded
partly by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

"It's fantastic -- I'm really excited about it," Nason said. "It's probably
the most significant public service I've ever done in my career."

Nason says 50 to 90 percent of active ingredients in medicines are not
absorbed or broken down by the body, so human waste in sewage and drugs
flushed down the toilet have resulted in more than 100 different
pharmaceuticals being identified in drinking and surface water.

"They are not huge concentrations, but definitely measurable," he said.

In other parts of the United States, researchers have found male fish that
have taken on female characteristics, such as developing eggs and the ability
to reproduce, according to Nason.

"It's amazing, and causes all kinds of other reproductive problems," he said.

Inland Hospital is providing a pharmacist to help collect and sort
medications at the drop-off day. Inland's pharmacy director, Mike Friel, said
the hospital is proud to help the community keep medications out of the hands
of those who could be unintentionally harmed by them. "Unused, unwanted,
outdated medications can be a public and environmental health hazard," he
said.

Add to the environmental issue the growing number of people illegally
stealing, using or selling prescription drugs and the problem is huge,
according to Nason. 

He said he is modeling his program on one started more than a year ago in
West Bath, in Sagadahoc County -- the first one held in Maine, he said.

Sagadahoc County Sheriff Mark Westrum said Tuesday that the program is very
successful there and he is glad the drugs collected are not on the street or
being flushed down toilets. Westrum works with Mid-Coast Hospital, area
police departments and others to schedule a drop-off day twice a year, he
said.

"I think it is the best Crime Prevention 101 ever to be taught to anybody,"
he said.

Police officers are required to be at the event because of the presence of
controlled substances, according to Nason. Police will safeguard the drugs
until they are taken to the appropriate places.

Some prescription drugs are considered hazardous and must be sealed and taken
out of state to a licensed disposal facility, he said.

Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey said that increasingly, people are
obtaining prescription drugs illegally from family members, friends and
pharmacies and either selling or using them.

While he acknowledges that a drop-off program can be burdensome because of
the logistics of categorizing and disposing of various pharmaceuticals,
Massey says it's important for police to participate. He hopes the process
ultimately becomes easier, he said.

"I'm always concerned when I know these types of drugs are just hanging
around the house," he said.

Roy McKinney, director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, says his office
has been involved in drafting a protocol guide for police on collection
events.

"The MDEA will only get involved in accepting these drugs if they're
separated out into groups of controlled and non-controlled," he said.

McKinney noted that it is illegal to give prescription medication to someone
for whom it is not prescribed. An issue that complicates the drug problem is
that pharmaceutical companies directly market drugs to consumers, such as
through television advertisements, he said. Such marketing did not occur
prior to 1992, according to McKinney. "The U.S. is the only country in the
world which has direct consumer marketing of prescription drugs," McKinney
said. "That has to have an effect on young people."

Kennebec Valley Council of Governments organizes the regular hazardous waste
drop-off days. Nason said towns will pay a portion of the set-up fee for the
Oct. 20 event, which is expected to cost about $15,000. 
Laurie J. Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
PH: (850) 245-8759
FAX: (850) 245-8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us 

Mercury web pages:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm

Unwanted Medications web pages:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/medications/default.htm




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