To increase the utility of the repository laws, health counselors, pharmacists and volunteers have deployed various strategies. Some clinics are incorporating repositories into their ongoing patient assistance programs. Other efforts focus on specific medications, such as high-cost cancer drugs to which patients often prove intolerant.

Education is also key: pharmacy counters could provide information about what consumers can do with unused medications. And as Englebert points out, tackling packaging issues up front—such as increased use of blister seals—might help satisfy security requirements.

Many experts and patient advocates remain optimistic about drug repositories. Sarah Barber, who is a senior policy analyst at the American Cancer Society, notes that the nationwide trend indicates a definite need. These programs, she thinks, “will become much easier and much more usable in the future.”

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Spreading the Health".

3 Comments

1. 1. Teriss 12:30 PM 1/29/09

   That 200 billion dollars worth of drugs ends up in our drinking water, lakes and streams. The water purification systems do not remove pharma drugs from drinking water. It is high time that the pharmaceuticals pay for removing their waste from our water, as most of the drugs end up in the toilet. We are far over medicated, and over subscribed in this country, its time to spend money on organic foods, not chemical foods and stop this "drugging of America". Test studies reveal that fish are growing breasts, and anti-depressants, arthritic medication, even Viagra is in your tap water, don't drink it. Lets get some laws to clean up our water, and those drug companies should be the ones paying for it.

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2. 2. GrantMartinez 10:32 AM 6/28/09

   It is high time that the pharmaceuticals pay for removing their waste from our water, as most of the drugs end up in the toilet. We are far over medicated, and over subscribed in this country, its time to spend money on organic foods, not chemical foods and stop this "drugging of America". <a href="http://npdrugs.com">No RX Drugs</a>

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3. 3. Poupon 11:14 AM 3/20/11

   I am trying to donate dozens of new bottles of medicine that were prescribed to my FIL just before his recent death. Neither the rehab center where he passed, nor the independent living center where he lived, knew of his program. Clearly information about this program is not being distributed where it should be.
   
   My response to the pharmacist who claimed this is like ordering drugs on the internet is no, it is not. Large profits are involved in internet drug sales; none at all are involved in donations. You have NO problem filling a dozen prescriptions for a patient and then two days later filing a completely diffent set of them for the same patient when he is switched to a new doctor or hospital, do you? In my fil's case, he went, in the matter of a month, between his own doctors, to first one hospital and then another and then into rehab, then back to the second hospital and back to the rehab center. Each time his pharmacy profited by filling a completely new set of meds. Some went to the hospital, and inexplicably, some were delivered to his apartment. Only a fraction were consumed. All were billed to the American public, because they were paid for by medicare.
   
   The bottom line is that pharmaceutical companies need to be offering financial support to this program, including adveretising it. They need to be footing the bill for a campaign to stop people from flushing unused meds down toilets. And pharmacists need to do their part by participating in this program and letting
   every person who picks up a prescription know about it. I know I have filled prescriptions I never used, because it was discovered I had something else, or in a recent case, was told by my electrophysiologist not to take the type drug my GP preescribed.
   
   There also needs to be better support for families when a member dies. We're viewed by the general public as sharks looking for inheritance, when, in many, if not most cases, the family would love help donating the many things that elders own that thrift shops can't or won't accept. Every facility that cares for elderly or terminally ill people ought to have a list of places that would benefit from warm coats, blankets, walkers, etc.
   

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