Animals shouldn't do drugs

Curing the problem of discarding pills

By CHERIE BLACK
P-I REPORTER

At one time, pharmacies and physicians were OK with consumers flushing unwanted or expired medications down the toilet or throwing them in the garbage.

Now, we know better.

Evidence of the medications' harmful effects have been surfacing in our waterways, landfills and marine life. A nationwide study released in 2002 by the United States Geological Survey showed trace levels of chemicals found in prescription drugs in 80 percent of the streams across the country.

Putting medicines in the garbage also can lead to accidental contact by children and animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to an increased risk of accidental poisoning from unwanted or expired medications sitting in medicine cabinets. Plus, the old medicines still can end up in the soil through landfills.

So what to do?

"We see this all the time, patients come to us and say please help us figure this out," said Shirley Reitz, associate director for clinical pharmacy services at Group Health. "We needed a way to do this without flushing them down the toilet or putting them in the garbage can," she said.

As a result, a coalition of government and non-profit groups throughout the state, including Group Health, the Department of Ecology and the Washington State Board of Pharmacy, have developed a program to offer a better option -- the first program in Washington that collects unwanted pharmaceuticals and disposes of them safely.

The program is running in pharmacies at seven test sites throughout the state, including three in King County. Each has a large, blue, highly secure medical disposal unit in the customer waiting area where consumers bring unwanted medications in the original containers and drop them in the box, Reitz said. The materials are then transported to a hazardous waste destruction site for environmentally safe disposal.