[Pharmwaste] Impact Analysis of Drug Take-Back Program in North Carolina

[Ed Gottlieb]

The Positive Impact of a North Carolina State-Wide Medicine Disposal Initiative on the DEA National Take-Back Day Program
Authors: Thomas Alfieri, Ph.D., Fred Wells Brason II, Tracy Mayne, Ph.D.

Purdue Pharma collaborated with Project Lazarus, a non-profit organization established to decrease opioid-related overdose deaths and promote appropriate care for pain patients, to create the North Carolina Disposal Initiative (NCDI). Drug take-back programs are designed to provide safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, to decrease accidental ingestion, abuse, and diversion. The goals of the NCDI are to help community-based organizations conduct drug take-back programs, increase utilization of medicine drop boxes across North Carolina, assess the effectiveness of such initiatives to remove prescription medicine from circulation, and gauge their impact on public health outcomes such as opioid overdose deaths, hospitalizations, and calls to poison control centers.

“This program is an example of how centralized interventions involving government health departments, community-based coalitions, and industry have the potential to reduce the amount of medication in circulation,” said Fred Wells Brason II, President and Chief Executive Officer, Project Lazarus. “The DEA nationwide numbers also show North Carolina collected an average of 440 pounds of medicines per site in April 2017, which was second-highest rate across the US. Additional research and analyses to quantify the proportion of opioids collected and to assess the impact of disposal initiatives on public health outcomes are ongoing.”



http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170906005319/en/Purdue-Pharma-L.P.-Present-Data-Research-Studies



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