[Pharmwaste] Prescription Drug Takeback Programs & Substance Abuse Policy

Fri Mar 2 14:26:26 EST 2012

It would be interesting to see what drug abuse research has shown in Australia where a national take back program has been in effect for several years.
http://www.returnmed.com.au/
Laurie

Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist III
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
Mercury: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm
Batteries: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/batteries/default.htm
Pharmaceuticals:  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/pharm/

Please take a few minutes to share your comments on the service you received from the department by clicking on this link DEP Customer Survey<http://survey.dep.state.fl.us/?refemail=Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us>.
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us [mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Ed Gottlieb
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 12:48 PM
To: Zachary Laris
Cc: Daniel Ramer; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] Prescription Drug Takeback Programs & Substance Abuse Policy

Dear Mr. Laris,

I'm sure you recall that I provided you with information about the costs and results of the drug takeback program run by the CSMD in Tompkins County, NY.

I read the Policy Brief for your examination of prescription drug takeback programs at http://carnevaleassociates.com/takebacks.

In the opening summary paragraph, Carnevale says, "In addition, we found no evidence that takeback programs affect prescription drug abuse."  I'm quite shocked to read this very misleading statement!  It creates the strong impression that you looked at evidence and concluded that takeback programs do not affect prescription drug abuse.  This is not the case.

In this same Policy Brief, in the paragraph titled, "Assessing Takebacks: Little is Known" you state, "In fact, no research has been conducted to investigate takebacks’ effect on prescription drug abuse."  If no research has been done on the question, a neutral conclusion would be appropriate.  Wouldn't a more accurate summation be, "Data doesn't exist to determine if takeback programs affect prescription drug abuse."?

I hope you be able to address this issue in a meaningful way.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Ed Gottlieb
Chair, Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal
Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381
fax: (607) 273-8433

>>> "Zachary Laris" <zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>> 5/5/2011 1:34 PM >>>
Thank you Mr. Gottlieb, this is most helpful.

Best,
Zach

Zachary Laris
Junior Policy Analyst
Carnevale Associates, LLC
Mobile: (202) 230-7664
Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Gottlieb [mailto:egottlieb at cityofithaca.org]
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 10:25 AM
To: Zachary Laris
Subject: Budget reports.

Mr. Laris,

I am attaching budget reports for all three collections.
Additional materials were donated by various agencies involved:  small
plastic bags (a no longer used type), flier printing (about 200 color
pages), poster printing (9, 2x3'), disposable rubber gloves, tape, etc.

I still hope to get you a total hours worked & paid hours (including at
least some with $/hr) report for the April 9th collection.

Best,

Ed

>>> "Zachary Laris" <zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>> 5/4/2011 10:32 AM
>>> >>>
Mr. Gottlieb,

I am most appreciative of your time and assistance in sending along the
information on your take back events.  This provides great insight into the
workings of your program.  Unfortunately, an honorarium is not something my
firm can provide.  If you are interested in providing further information to
assist in take back cost effectiveness research we would be greatly
appreciative.  However, we fully understand that your time is valuable and
that may not be possible.  Either way, thank you again for your help.

Best Regards,
Zach

Zachary Laris
Junior Policy Analyst
Carnevale Associates, LLC
Mobile: (202) 230-7664
Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Gottlieb [mailto:egottlieb at cityofithaca.org]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 9:08 AM
To: Zachary Laris
Subject: Re: Take Back Follow Up

Dear Mr. Laris,

I am sending you data on individual contribution weights (with packaging),
survey results, and final reports for our three events.  I am also sending
the hours worked data that I have (haven't collected this information for
our third event, though I could), some expense reports, some photos, and
other information.  All will be attached in multiple emails to assure they
are not over any delivery limit.

As far as I have been able to determine, our first event collected more
weight of medications than any other one day, one location collection in the
nation.

To see the seven part "how-to organize a pharm waste collection video" we
had made go to:
http://www.takebacknetwork.com/about.html
This URL also has a link to the inventory data base spreadsheet we
developed.  This contains the detailed inventory data from our second and
third events (sort by date.)

I would be happy to respond more fully to your request.  For example, I know
you want to know the hours worked for the third event and how many of the
reported hours worked were paid and at what rate.  I could also answer
further questions by phone or email, provide more event photos (at higher
resolution), etc.  I am wondering if a small honorarium might be available
to justify the additional time commitment?

Regards,

Ed Gottlieb
Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381
fax: (607) 273-8433

>>> "Zachary Laris" <zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>> 4/27/2011 12:22 PM
>>> >>>
Mr. Gottlieb,

Thank you for discussing Ithaca's take back program with me this morning.
Carnevale Associates specializes in substance abuse policy, and we are
gathering information on take back programs nationwide as part of an
inventory and assessment of current programs.  Specifically, we are
interested in understanding program costs, and linking those costs to
outcome measures wherever possible.  Our ultimate goal is to gain an
understanding of the most cost-effective take back program components.

I would love the opportunity to take a look at any and all survey
information your program has gathered, as well as data on what particularly
your program has collected at the events.  If it would be possible for you
to provide more detailed cost information regarding each individual event
(staff time and cost breakdowns for each event, ad costs, materials,
destruction, etc.) that would be most helpful.  Also if you have any
thoughts you'd like to share generally about programmatic changes you've
implemented as you've held programs and learned ways to improve them.

Because we're performing this work under contract, the reports generated
remain the property of our client.  As a result, we are not permitted to
share them.  However, I'm happy to report your interest and pass along your
contact information.  As a matter of policy, we do not disclose our client
information for specific projects.  We work for a variety of organizations
including the federal government, state and local governments, academic and
other non-profit institutions, and private industry.  If you're interested
in taking a look at a (non-exhaustive) list of our clients and the type of
work we have done in the past, you can take a look at our website
<http://www.carnevaleassociates.com/> .  Carnevale Associates also plans to
stay involved with take back issues after this project ends, and I'd be more
than happy to send you any subsequent in-house materials that we produce in
this area.  Thank you again for your time and assistance.

Best Regards,

Zach Laris

Zachary Laris

Junior Policy Analyst

Carnevale Associates, LLC

Mobile: (202) 230-7664

Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com<mailto:Zachary at carnevaleassociates.com>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20120302/0f323427/attachment.htm