Maine county to collect old drugs
The Associated Press
AUGUSTA — Kennebec County is following the lead of communities in Maine that have collected old and unused prescription drugs so they can be properly disposed of.
Sheriff Randall Liberty says deputies are disposing of unwanted prescription medications after the drugs are delivered to the sheriff's office in Augusta. Deputies will also respond to callers who want medications picked up at their homes.
South Portland and Cape Elizabeth police have already conducted a similar program in which they collected more than 100,000 pills.
In Kennebec County, Liberty said proper disposal of old prescription drugs will help to reduce one of the causes of drug abuse. The sheriff said that in the first week of the drug collection program, the deputies collected more than 5,200 prescription pills.
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6 COMMENTS
bubbagump said...
Sure you can pick up my drugs. Right after I completely erase my name off the bottle as well as the name of the medication. Fair is fair!
February 22, 2010 at 11:12 AM Report abuse
CC said...
Mix 'em up in a water bottle with water and then hand them in. you can put them in a septic system and let the microbes do their thing.
February 22, 2010 at 11:18 AM Report abuse
said...
Can they sell the drugs to lower our taxes?
February 22, 2010 at 12:13 PM Report abuse
said...
Be interesting to know who put money behind this effort. Given the cost of pharmaceuticals, they should be collected, verified, and then redistributed to those who need them for free. This effort ensures that the unused drugs are destroyed, and that everyone has to continue paying the pharma companies top dollar. None of these people involved seemed to have figured out (or wanted to acknowledge) that many seniors take 1/2 or even 1/4 quarter of prescribed dosages because they can not afford their medications. It seems to be almost irrelevant in the quest to take every dime from the peasantry as possible, and ensure multi-generational wealth for pharma...... I do hope that those involved in initiating this effort in Maine at least got some sort of payoff for colluding in this effort.
February 22, 2010 at 1:18 PM Report abuse
Steve said...
Why don't they set up a program so you can just return unused drugs to your pharmacist as the collection point?
February 22, 2010 at 4:02 PM Report abuse
said...
there is an underground network for cancer drugs, that i've heard of......of course, the pharmas hate this....but, some of the drugs cost over 1K per dose. You gonna flush that? When someone else -- who can't afford the drug -- has to go without? our system is so, so screwed up...if you are a patient. if you're a health insurance or pharma exec, of course, everything is peachy, peachy keen......and with any luck, our insurance commissioner will keep things going their way.
February 22, 2010 at 11:27 PM Report abuse