pain pill

Proper Opioid and Painkiller Disposal

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

Opioid Pill Disposal MinnesoraWith the increasing problems with drug abuse plaguing our society, there often is a question with regards to disposal of unused medications. The old training used to be to crush it up and throw it down the toilet. However, this is not a very environmentally friendly method of disposal. Tests performed at water treatment facilities often test positive for compounds like Prozac, an antidepressant. Fish are currently showing up with human hormones from ingesting residuals from birth control pills to testosterone. Clearly there are better solutions.

Recently, several different solutions have been proposed. A common suggestion has been to crush the pills and mix them with used coffee grounds and then throw them in the trash. Most likely, this is not much better than flushing them down the toilet. If the trash is incinerated, that would destroy the medications safely, but most trash is still placed in landfills, and again may end up in the environment.

Another solution offered by some pharmacies involves a special bag provided by the pharmacy with a chemical agent that neutralizes the drugs when they are placed inside the bag, making them unusable. The drugs then can be thrown away in the trash, or in some places returned to the pharmacy for disposal. There is a push on the state level to make it legal for pharmacies to take back unused drugs and then they can send them to an incinerator to be fully destroyed. High temperature burning leaves no significant chemical residual that may be harmful.

Police Intervention

One of the best solutions currently available is returning them to drug take back boxes that many police departments use. My local police department has a disposal box that is in the lobby, and is can be used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The police will then make sure the medications are sent for safe disposal at an appropriate incinerator.

The most important thing to be aware of is that unused medications sitting around the home are a significant safety hazard. They can be abused, misused, or even accidentally taken, which can lead to overdose and death. Proper disposal is essential. Currently, the best solutions are to use police disposal boxes, neutralizing pouches, or to return them to a pharmacy. Avoid flushing them down the toilet when possible.

Sometime in the future, hopefully some genius will figure out how to safely recycle medications. This would not be an easy task. Each individual medication would need to be separated, and then chemically reprocessed and purified to the same standard as the original production. Whether this would be cost effective, no one currently knows. In the meantime, old and unused medications need to be safely disposed on a timely basis since these are dangerous and toxic compounds.

How To Properly Dispose of Pain Pills and Opioids

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

Pain Pill Disposal MinnesotaOpioid abuse has become a huge problem in the United States. After many minor procedures and trauma people are prescribed pain medication. Oftentimes people have leftover pills that end up sitting around the home. This is one source of pills that may be misused or abused by others, or the patient themselves and can lead to addiction. No one usually wants to waste their medicine, but with the abuse potential and danger of these opioids, disposal then becomes an issue.

Leftover pain medications that are opioids need to be handled properly. When storing them at home, due to the street value and abusive potential, they should be kept hidden and locked away securely. One does not want these medications to ever be lost or stolen. Furthermore, easy access may allow another household member or friend the ability to take the opioids and use or abuse them. Your safety and others is dependent on keeping all your medications secure and used only according to the directions of the prescriber.

Proper Disposal

Disposal of medications has become a major problem. Most drugs, no matter the category, are considered hazardous substances. Drugs can be toxic to other people, animals and the environment. Studies of wastewater have often showed traces of a wide variety of substances from birth control hormones, to antidepressants and narcotics. The most common recommendation for drug disposal has been to flush them down the toilet. Unfortunately this has led to the spread of many compounds into the water system and the environment. A better solution for personal disposal is to crush and mix the pills with dirt or cat litter making the drug unusable and disposing with the trash.

Currently, the best option for disposal is burning the medication in a commercial incinerator. This actually destroys and fairly safely vaporizes most medications. Minnesota does have a program coordinated by local law enforcement offices to take unused prescription medications, and these are sent for hazardous waste incineration. Unfortunately this is not the most convenient system for a lot of people. Physician offices usually do not have the ability to do this but often they can add prescription medications to other drugs and materials that are sent out as hazardous waste on a very limited basis. Pharmacies and drugstores do not generally have the ability to accept returned medications.

Hopefully in the near future, Minnesota will develop a system to encourage medication return to pharmacies for disposal in a secure and proper way. A wide spread system of pharmacy return and transfer for incineration would be ideal. For this to occur, Minnesota would need to change its law and assist with the coordination of collection and proper disposal. This would be a major step forward in reducing medication available for abuse and it would lessen the toxic effects on the environment.