[Pharmwaste] collecting sharps & illegal drugs with unwanted meds + a correction on inventory software

[Ed Gottlieb]

Two issues have arisen for our March 6th collection event.  

The New York State DOH reviewed our unwanted household pharm waste collection permit request and said that sharps collection, "should not be included" since there are established means of disposal in place.  As one of the event organizers, our local Health Department sees a need for an additional disposal option.  Our Solid Waste partner agrees since more than one sanitation worker has gotten stuck by sharps in the trash.  We are still waiting for a return call from our State DOH contact to clarify the meaning "should not."  This has been holding up our outreach campaign, which was all set to go.
 
The second issue concerns illegal drugs.  I noticed that some collection events specifically state not to bring them and I saw at least one that stated they could be brought, no questions asked.  I asked our law enforcement partner what they wanted to do in this regard.  Here is his reply:

"In my opinion we should accept all drugs brought to us. I think it is proper to destroy unwanted/unneeded as well as illegally possessed drugs. An issue that needs consideration is the person transporting illegal drugs to the facility finding themselves involved with the police, found to be in possession of illegal drugs and then arrested for the possession. This is not an easy issue and maybe we should discuss it with the City Attorney. Is there information available from communities that have advertised that people should bring illegally possessed/illegal drugs to events like this?"    

Can any of you offer us guidance on this?  Thanks!

I also want to correct something I said in my last posting regarding inventory software.  I stated, 
"Returnco's program will not be able to deliver your ideal of having
the application "link" entries that come from one event participant as
well as a link to other desired information (like survey questionnaire
results.)  This information would be great to have, especially for those
setting policy to decrease the over prescribing of medications."

Mr. Ko of Returnco called me to say that it is a simple matter to assign a code to each batch of returned medications.  We will have our ideal!  If survey forms go with the trays of returned medications to the sort table it will then be a simple matter to use the same code for both (car #10 for example) allowing us to get an even more complete picture of patterns of what medications are not being fully utilized.



Ed Gottlieb
Pretreatment Coordinator
IAWTF
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381