Unused pharmaceuticals increasingly fuel addiction and environmental concerns, but two new bills could help keep New Hampshire’s excess medications off the streets and out of the water supply — while getting some of them to patients for whom costly pills are largely out of reach.
Unused, costly and life-saving medicines don't have to go to waste. (photo Hilary Niles)
Following up on a statewide effort last September to help communities safely collect and dispose of unused prescription drugs is House Bill 71. Sponsored by Rep. Chris Nevins (R-Hampton), the bill has bipartisan support. It would have state agencies (Department of Justice, Pharmacy Board, Department of Safety, and Department of Environmental Services) set up rules and guidelines to allow communities and private entities to establish pharmaceutical take-back programs.
Rep. Donna Schlachman (D-Exeter) is a co-sponsor of HB 71. She says it the product of an interim study committee recommendation. The original bill called for pharmacies to establish take-back programs, but that was considered unrealistic for liability reasons, she explains. But, last year a pilot project collected more than one ton of unused pharmaceuticals from homes across the state. Properly collected, these drugs can’t be abused or create environmental damage to water supplies.
“We use one or two pills (of a prescription) for pain but not the rest,” says Schlachman. “We just get lazy and don’t dispose of them. They just sit around and all too often fall into the wrong hands,” Schlachman tells Front Door Politics. “We don’t need ‘Pharm Parties’ where kids bring prescription drugs from home and share them with friends.”
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says that prescription drug abuse ranks second behind marijuana for teenagers.
Following its first public hearing on Jan. 11, HB 71 was sent to a subcommittee of the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, where it will be discussed today at 2:30. Schlachman isn’t sure why HB 71 was sent to subcommittee, which usually means the committee chair wants further study.
“I believe we had crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is,” she says. But, overall, she is confident the bill will become law.
Also today at 2:00 p.m., the full committee will have its first look at another bill Schlachman co-sponsored, House Bill 111. This proposal would expand a law passed last year (HB 1184) that allowed unused drugs to be stored and re-presecribed in places like nursing homes. HB 111, whose prime sponsor is Rep. Sandra Keans (D-Rochester) would add unopened samples to that program. (You can see a 2010 Front Door Politics report on HB 1184 and a pilot prescription drug recycling program here.)
>> The Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee meets today in the Legislative Office Building, Room 205, for the following public hearings and work sessions:
2:00 p.m. HB 111, relative to redispensing unused drugs, Room 205.
2:30 p.m. Subcommittee work session on HB 71, authorizing establishment of pharmaceutical drug take-back programs, Room 207.
This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.