In a new policy created to keep prescribed drug abuse at bay, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has announced that pharmacies will be able to take back unused pills. This long awaited regulation will take full form next month, and will permit pharmacies to dispose of drugs that have remained in home cabinets after having served their purpose.
The measure comes from years of severe critic at the ease to attain prescription drugs and the paradoxical difficulty in getting rid of them afterwards. Under current regulations, pharmacies are not allowed to take back painkillers, even if they are able to provide them to users; in fact, the only way to get rid of unused prescription meds under legislation is to hand them out directly to the police. For this, the D.E.A. organizes national "take back" events, which according to The New York Times have removed 4.1 million pounds of medication from homes; the next one is set to happen on September 27.
The new ruling doesn't only cover physical deliveries of unused pills, but would also entail the possibility of mailing them to pharmacies. Whatever the method of collection is, pharmacies would have to destroy the medication within 30 days, though the D.E.A doesn't clarify a preferred technique of disposal.
Not all pharmacies will be up to collecting the unused drugs, but some are expected to take the government's call as an act of good faith.
This initiative comes from a worrying statistic: over 70% of American teenagers claim it is easy to gather prescription drugs from their parents' medicine cabinets, according to a 2014 study by Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.
Around 1,500 steel boxes made by Wisconsin-based company MedReturn have been installed in police stations in the country for drug collection, and they're expected to appear soon in pharmacies as well.
