The medicine cabinet is today's drug dealer. Teens are getting prescription drugs from family members to get high. Yet, without convenient collection sites, unused and expired medications get stored at home, thrown in the trash, and flushed down the toilet - all of which have risks. For years, the Bay Area community has attempted to solve these problems through local government funded programs. Now the public is demanding that pharmaceutical companies play a role.
After months of intense discussion around an ordinance to make drugmakers responsible for designing, operating and funding collection of these unused drugs, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will vote on this ordinance Tuesday. It is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Both federal and state lawmakers have failed to pass legislation requiring a sustainably funded medication management system. Meanwhile, 1 person dies every 19 minutes from prescription drug abuse in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey, 80 percent of streams in the United States have measurable concentrations of prescription drugs, including steroids and hormones.
Although the county's ordinance can't solve all the causes of prescription drug abuse, hundreds of supporters locally and throughout the country agree collection is a big step in the right direction. I imagine producer-funded take-back programs for medications will be standard business practice in the future, much like is done today with rechargeable batteries. It's just the right thing to do, as well as an opportunity for drug companies to stand by their claims of corporate social responsibility.
The pharmaceutical industry profits are approximately $186 million annually in Alameda County. Joel Kreisberg, of the Teleosis Institute, who has established 10 of the 28 med collection locations in the county, testified that the cost of operating the county system at the current 28 locations would be approximately $330,000 a year. Based on product sales, the cost would be about 1 cent for every $33 of pharmaceuticals sold in the county. According to the Post-Consumer Pharmaceutical Stewardship Association in Canada, medication return programs there were funded by many of the U.S. pharma companies and that small cost has never been passed along to consumers.
The U.S. profits for the pharmaceutical industry in 2010 were $45 billion; they spent $2.5 billion on television advertising in 2011, and are a powerful lobbying force in Washington.
But the public outcry is getting louder and becoming more powerful. My office is partnering with the Medication Education Disposal Safety Coalition and more than 50 organizations throughout the Bay Area to develop a medication disposal ordinance that can be used as a model for other counties.
The pharmaceutical companies need to know you care about public health and water quality, and want them to share in the responsibility for medication disposal.
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