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Here’s the problem: Unused prescriptions lining your medicine cabinet shelves or stashed in a desk drawer may be a tempting target to a curious teen or a drug-seeking adult in your family.
That’s a worry, because most teens and adults who abuse pain meds say they got them from a relative or a friend. They may be checking out Grandma and Grandpa’s medicine stash, and that can and does lead to untold woes.
So, you need to clean out and dispose of those unused drugs. You can’t just flush them down the toilet, though, as the chemical compounds will show up in our oceans, lakes and streams. You can toss them into the trash, but there’s an alternative.
Scientists have developed special pouches that can be used to deactivate medications, according to Allyson Butler, the Partnerships for Success grant coordinator for Chesterfield Mental Health Support Services. The pouches are available to area residents through a program funded through a state grant and being implemented in a partnership that includes various Chesterfield County agencies, the Chesterfield Health District (which includes Powhatan County and Colonial Heights) and SAFE. Here's a list of sites where the pouches are available.
The pouches are biodegradable and can be used to dispose up to 45 pills, 6 ounces of liquid or six patches. The devices are Deterra Deactivation Systems, produced by a Minnesota-based company. More than 6,000 pouches are available. The county had a similar campaign last year and distributed 2,000 pouches.
Drugs are placed into the pouch, then you add water. There’s a form of carbon in the devices that interacts with the ingredients in the medications to deactivate them. The pouches can then be thrown into the trash.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines say that you can dispose of most medication by throwing it away, but there are concerns that someone may go through your trash and find the drugs, or that a pet may get into them that way as well. Butler notes that if you don’t have pouches available, before throwing meds away you can mix them with used cat litter or coffee grounds as a deterrent. The FDA also recommends removing or marking out any personal information on a container before it's discarded. Place the waste into a sealed container.
Butler notes that a similar product is available for free through all Walmart pharmacies. Called DisposeRX, it’s a packet containing a substance that you pour into a pill bottle and add warm water to turn the medication into a gel. It’s available whenever the Walmart pharmacist fills a prescription for an opioid, and it’s also available to their other pharmacy customers.
Chesterfield is also offering a drug takeback event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, at the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds, 10300 Courthouse Road, where you can safely turn in unwanted or unused medications.
