mlktwins Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 I am cleaning out my dad's house and have removed all the old, expired meds. They are at my house for now :-0 !!! We have a DEA drug take-back day next Saturday and I want to prepare everything to get rid of it. Has anyone done this before? The DEA website wasn't giving me the information I'm looking for. My questions are: 1. Can I be prepared before I go? For example, have all the labels removed from the containers and ready to dump? Do they want the bottles? Do they want to know what meds I'm dumping? Can I just have them all combined in plastic bags here at home and dump the bag when I get there? 2. How do I handle liquid meds (i.e. old Tylenol 3)? 3. Do they take tubes of prescription ointments and creams (i.e. for skin)? 4. Do they take old over the counter stuff (i.e. Nyquil)? I have never done this before so any information would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Ours takes most prescriptions but something about nothing in a tube you squeeze. I haven’t done it yet but those I know who do it and they take the labels with any personal info off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 We have local events at least once a year, I think done by the sheriff's office. I've heard I can also drive stuff to the sheriff's office in a neighboring town at any time. I believe we're supposed to leave the medication in the original bottle but black out the name for privacy reasons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 They had an event at our Air National Guard. We just drove through the parking lot. They were standing there with a small bucket. We dropped in the prescription bottles (labels still on, so they'd know what they had). They didn't ask any questions, just invited us to have some cookies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Different areas have different rules—we have done it in a couple of states. In my current state, Rx only, in original containers with labels still attached. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfish Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 11 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: Different areas have different rules—we have done it in a couple of states. In my current state, Rx only, in original containers with labels still attached. This. The event and its rules are probably listed on the sponsors website. You might also want to check with Walgreens and your local police department. In our area, they both have a locked box ( kind of like a library dropbox ) where we can drop prescription drugs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Starfish said: This. The event and its rules are probably listed on the sponsors website. You might also want to check with Walgreens and your local police department. In our area, they both have a locked box ( kind of like a library dropbox ) where we can drop prescription drugs. Yes, our area has drop off at Sheriff's office for any unused Rx, anytime. Not just an event. Edited October 19, 2018 by ScoutTN 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 One of our pharmacies does this....but I can't remember if it's Walgreen's or CVS. They have a box where you can actually drop off old meds at any time (well, while open). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Here you can walk into a pharmacy at any time and hand over the medication 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambam Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 I've turned in unused prescriptions to a local pharmacy when the person died. Our local police department has a locked box in their lobby for medication. There are no rules on it, so I just remove the labels on the bottles. I figure if it is for disposal, they don't care what it is. I've only done pills though - no liquid or tubes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Just ask your pharmacy. They've probably gone through this a few times. ? We take our drugs back every time we move, which is a good time for us to clear out the drawer. Our pharmacies have all switched to lockboxes available at all times, which makes it easier. I just black out personal information on the containers because I don't know if controlled meds have a different procedure than things like motrin and I prefer to leave them with their red labels on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Our Walgreens has a big mailbox-like box next to the pickup window. No questions, just drop it in. They don't take liquids, but anything in pill form. The hospital used to do it too, and it was the same thing. They did a drive-by on a Saturday in front of one of their office buildings, and I didn't even have to get out of the car. I use a Sharpie to black out the name or remove the label. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 On 10/18/2018 at 5:13 PM, mlktwins said: I am cleaning out my dad's house and have removed all the old, expired meds. They are at my house for now :-0 !!! We have a DEA drug take-back day next Saturday and I want to prepare everything to get rid of it. Has anyone done this before? The DEA website wasn't giving me the information I'm looking for. My questions are: 1. Can I be prepared before I go? For example, have all the labels removed from the containers and ready to dump? Do they want the bottles? Do they want to know what meds I'm dumping? Can I just have them all combined in plastic bags here at home and dump the bag when I get there? 2. How do I handle liquid meds (i.e. old Tylenol 3)? 3. Do they take tubes of prescription ointments and creams (i.e. for skin)? 4. Do they take old over the counter stuff (i.e. Nyquil)? I have never done this before so any information would be appreciated. This might be different here than there but, we have a drug disposal day every so often. The one time I went, they wanted my name and for me to list every drug I was giving them. It felt like a big personal violation. I haven’t gone since. Don’t know what to do with left over drugs now. I found some old Vicodin and some old Vyvanse in a cupboard today and stuck it back there. No way am I going to another drug disposal event. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 I shouldn’t be amused, but we recently had a local one cancelled due to fears of corruption. Yep, that’s how it is here. Can’t trust anyone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Both the sheriff station, main police station and the military pharmacy have drop boxes. Plus there is a once a year program too with drive by. I have to use these fairly often since either we get medicines that we do try and stop using or that we cannot finish before expiration (true expiration). Ours takes both OTC and prescription. It takes both liquids, and solids, I know it does not take inhalation like Advair or Albuterol in the pressure cans or oval container type things. It does take the enormous amount of albuterol solution that all pulmonologists and ERs seem to always prescribe when either I or my asthmatic daughter need more because the giant pile has expired. (These are for nebulizers and I have no idea why they always prescribe to me especially enough for me to use round the clock for months and months since I have fairly mild asthma now) I also think it does not take creams or gels but not positive. Our drug take back program is based on keeping it out of the water supply along with not having it not getting into wrong hands. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 Most pharmacies do not take medications anymore. It takes a lot of time and labor to handle those medications and pharmacies don't want to foot the bill to provide the service. Drug take back events are definitely the way to go if possible. Just Google the one in your area and see what the requirements are. It is likely online. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlktwins Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 OP here! Thanks for all the great information. I found 2 pharmacies near me that take old meds all the time. I found this information on the DEA site. I never did find information on how to prepare stuff to drop off at the DEA take back day so I just followed the pharmacies rules and turned them in there. They have a big locked mailbox type thing near the pharmacy. It was very easy. Feels good to have them out of my house :-) !!! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippen Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 I just rip the name and other personal info from the label. I leave the drug identifying info on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 12 hours ago, happysmileylady said: When FIL passed in 2016, we just took his old meds right back to the pharmacy that he got them at originally. It was no problem. Although, it was the same Kroger that MIL had worked at before she passed and they knew FIL very well, so it could be that they were doing us a favor. On the other hand, I would think that a pharmacy would already have to have a policy in place to dispose of scripts. Tons and tons of scripts get filled but never picked up, mistakes get made and scripts have to be started over, and so on. So I would think most pharmacies would already have procedures in place to handle disposal of both the script and the PPI and simply adding in dropped off scripts I would think wouldn't incur that much additional expense over the disposals they already have to do. Washington Pharmacy Tech here (laws could be different in other states) Pills that are put into bottles and never leave the pharmacy (ie scripts that aren't picked up, misfills that are discovered before they leave the pharmacy etc) are just put back into the regular pharmacy supply and dispensed to someone else. If a mistake is made and the pills leave the pharmacy, and the patient brings them back, one of two things happens... If the medicine will not be harmful to the patient (ie pt is now on 300mg and the pills were the 150mg strength) the patient is told to keep the medicine or dispose of it themselves. There are document procedures done in the pharmacy to account for the pills and where they went. if the medicine could cause harm, was the wrong patients medicine, is a controlled substance, or otherwise problematic for the patient to have....then the pharmacy takes the medicine back to be disposed as hazardous waste. This only happens about 2-3 times a year for us and my pharmacy fills about 65,000 scripts a year....so it is quite uncommon. I am the person who handles this, so I know it is a rare occurance for us to dispose of pills this way. ALL PPI gets handled by Iron Mountain (commercial document disposal) in paper form and the also take our old script bottles that no longer have pills in them. They do not handle medications just the empty bottles. The way PPI-bottles end up in the pharmacy, is when someone brings in a bottle to request a refill and we toss the old bottle and give them a new one. It would be too labor intensive to remove our old labels (our current ones do not rip off easy) from the bottles We do not take bottles with pills in them. . Expired medications, pills that drop on the floor, and anything that is damaged (half-pills etc) all go to a company that handles old unusable medications.Every single pill is identified and logged. We pay for this service. We are not allowed to put medications that went out with a patient in this bin. They have to go to hazardous waste because we can't guarantee that they are not mixed up or contaminated since they left the pharmacy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Another option is to mix the meds (pills mostly) with something undesirable like cat litter & dispose of it like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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