Take a quick glance in your medicine cabinet, bathroom drawers, and kitchen cupboards and you’re bound to find old, unwanted, unneeded, or expired medications, both prescription and over-the-counter.
Some people know not to flush these medications or throw them in the garbage. Both options are ultimately harmful to our water quality and the environment.
Some people know they can take no-longer-needed medications to drug take-back collection sites temporarily being run – and paid for – by some law enforcement agencies in Thurston County, listed below. (We’re fortunate; only 12 of Washington’s 39 counties have such drop-off sites.)
But many more people don’t think twice about flushing or tossing medicines, where they risk contaminating drinking water and tainting landfills with toxic waste.
Washington residents also let millions of containers of medications gather dust in their homes each year, where the pills often end up in the wrong hands.
Research shows an alarming increase over the past decade in accidental poisonings. In fact, one-third of all child-poisoning deaths in Washington in 2006 were caused by drugs prescribed to someone else.
Studies also show that teens are using medicines found in the home to get high, second only to marijuana. And drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death, surpassing car crashes.
Thurston County currently has seven locations (listed below) that accept unused medications free of charge – but taxpayers still ultimately pay the price, as these law enforcement agencies must fund the programs themselves.
The Secure Medicine Take-Back Bill (SSB 5234), which failed to pass in this year’s legislative session in Olympia, would have relieved this financial burden on fiscally strained law enforcement agencies and local governments by requiring drug producers to provide and finance a secure take-back program for unused prescription and over-the-counter medicines.
The program would have provided statewide collection, transportation, and disposal of unwanted medicines, placing at least one take-back site in every county and each city with a population of 10,000 or more.
The proposed legislation also would have required simple but effective education and evaluation requirements, to increase consumer awareness of the take-back program.
According to Sheriffs and police departments who supported the bill, the need for such a program is clear and urgent.
“We’ve collected over a thousand pounds last year and there’s even more out there, but our budget is being cut further and it’s unlikely we can keep this going with current funding issues,” says Thurston County Undersheriff Jim Chamberlain.
The failed legislation would have required drug companies to dedicate about 1 cent for every $16 in medicines sold to fund the take-back program.
Over 140 organizations supported the legislation, including sheriffs, public health leaders, substance abuse professionals, and water quality experts.
So what now? The Legislature works in two-year cycles, so every bill introduced in this first year of the 2011-2012 biennium is automatically reintroduced next year. If proponents of the bill can encourage more Senator support between now and then, SSB 5234 could be pulled straight out for a floor vote.
Following is a list of Thurston County medicine take-back locations. All Washington state locations are listed here.
- Lacey Police Department, 420 College Street S.E. in Lacey.
7 days a week/24 hours a day
- Rainier City Hall, 102 Rochester St. W. in Rainier.
Monday-Thursday 8am-5pm
- Tenino Police Department, 358 McClellan Street S. in Tenino.
Monday-Friday 7:30am-4pm
- Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, 2000 Lakeridge Drive S.W. in Olympia
7 days a week/24 hours a day – outside Building #3
- Tumwater Police Department at City Hall, 555 Israel Road in Tumwater.
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm
- Yelm Police Department, 206 McKenzie Ave. SE in Yelm.
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm
- Group Health Cooperative*, 700 Lilly Road in Olympia.
Monday-Friday 8am-11pm (unlike law enforcement offices, Group Health cannot accept narcotics, such as Oxycontin or Vicodin)
For a Map View of Medication Drop Locations.
