[Pharmwaste] Take-back program runs afoul of DEA

[Marta Keane]

> PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISPOSAL PROGRAM
> Coroner determined to fight drugs (The Herald News, 4/4/08)
> By CHRISTINA CHAPMAN <mailto:cchapman at scn1.com?Subject=Story.Response>
> Staff Writer 
> MORRIS, IL  -- The national government may have tried to stop him
> Friday, but nothing is going to keep Grundy County Coroner John
> Callahan from working to get prescription drugs off the street. 
> Last week the coroner announced a program he was starting with Grundy
> County pharmacies to allow people to safely get rid of left-over
> prescriptions. The goal was to keep people from flushing the drugs or
> throwing the drugs into the garbage. 
> Even more important, Callahan said, was to keep the drugs from sitting
> in a cabinet in someone's house where a child or drug addict could
> take them. 
> Four local pharmacies were already participating in the program. 
> The pharmacies were given sealed containers to keep behind the
> counter. Customers could give their prescriptions to the pharmacist to
> put in the container. Full containers were to be picked up by the
> coroner's office, where the prescriptions would be ground. The powder
> would then be incinerated as a biohazard. 
> DEA steps in 
> Callahan ground more than 5,000 pills in one week, but Friday he
> received a call from the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago
> demanding he stop the program. 
> "The program was reported to the Drug Enforcement Administration in
> Washington, D.C., by an unknown source," Callahan said. 
> He was told he and the pharmacists were not allowed to take narcotics.
> The DEA told him only licensed officials and law enforcement agencies
> could take narcotics. Others who took narcotics could be arrested,
> Callahan said he was told. Pharmacists are not properly licensed to
> take back drugs. 
> Callahan was unaware of the restrictions, but argued that the coroner
> and his deputies are law enforcement officials and should be able to
> collect narcotics for disposal. 
> "I ceased the program Saturday morning, but I told them they had not
> heard the end of me," he said. 
> On Monday, Callahan sent the DEA state statutes proving he is a law
> enforcement official. The coroner and his deputies are allowed to make
> arrests and carry guns, he said. Within an hour, Callahan was told he
> could continue his program -- with changes. 
> Program changes 
> The program will start operating again by the end of April, but now
> Callahan or his deputies will have to be on site to accept the drugs. 
> The plan is to begin spending a couple hours at the pharmacies
> Saturdays to allow people to drop off the prescriptions. At first, it
> will be every Saturday to get the majority of the drugs out of the
> homes, Callahan said, but eventually it will done once a month. 
> "This program is the safest of all the programs out there. It is a
> shame that common sense can't prevail," he said. 
> Callahan compared the program to large cities' gun buy-back programs.
> He said he doubts everyone who turns in a gun has a FOID card, but
> officials do not arrest these people because they are just happy to
> get the guns off the street. 
> Grundy has more deaths as a result of prescription drug overdoses or
> suicides than any other drug death, Callahan said. People cannot rely
> on the government to come up with a method to get rid of these drugs. 
> "It will take them forever to come up with an idea and it will also be
> the most expensive method of disposing drugs," Callahan said. "I'm
> doing this program for under $100." 
> For more information on the drug disposal program, call (815)
> 942-3792. 
> 
> 
>