Anyone know of a good way to give away prescription drugs?

[1-Old-Man]

I have been taking a chemotherapy drug that is in pill form ever since May. The pills are gwad-awful expensive. As of today I won't be taking them any more and I have one unopened (sealed) bottle of them plus several days worth (these things are taken four at a time) remaining the bottle I'm on now. I an certain that there are people who need this drug and just as certain that there are people who simply can not afford them - they cost a bit over $5,000 per bottle. I know I can't resell them and in fact I have no desire to do anything with them other than gift them into the hands of someone who can't afford them but (desperately) needs them. Does anyone know of any sort of exchange, which might not be the right name for what I'm thinking of, where someone in my situation can help out the less fortunate ... legally, and have them land in good hands? As I said, the bottle is unopened and sealed, the pills reamining in the opened bottle are headed for either the toilet or the woodburner.

[we can do it]

1. Please don't put them into the toilet, whatever you do. It ends up in the water supply.

[Barack_America]

2. Give them to your oncologist.

He or she will be able to pass them to an appropriate patient who needs them. Nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. You can contact your state's health department.

Some have instituted donation programs. Others can tell you how to properly dispose of them so you don't contaminate ground water, etc.

[cbayer]

4. You might see if your oncologist would take them and give them to someone who needs them.

Some pharmacies will take unused meds, but I am pretty sure they just destroy them.

Whatever you do, don't put them in the toilet. There are concerns about pharmaceuticals getting into the water supply.

[arthritisR_US]

9. I wouldn't give them to the oncologist because

they are mandated by law to destroy them the same way pharmists are mandated to do so.
Try getting ahold of palliative care/home care providers. These organizations have an enormous patient base and there is a good probability that they would have a patient on that drug... Just a sugesstion.

Absolutely never put them in the toilet. Toxicity studies of fish in city rivers have found all kinds of drugs in the tissue of these critters.

[cbayer]

10. Is that a mandate in all states or just in some?

I've known of physicians redistributing them, but I'm not sure they were breaching the mandate or whether they were in locations where it was ok to do that.

[arthritisR_US]

12. If they were doing it it was under the table because

drug protocol is also stipulated by the association that doctors are licenced from. The main party who was behind setting up drug disposal was big pharma...

[cbayer]

13. Doctors are licensed by state agencies, so the rules might be different state to state.

I'm not aware of any nationally mandated drug disposal programs, but I could be wrong about that.

[Motown_Johnny]

5. Can you return the unsealed bottle?

[MineralMan]

6. Talk to your oncologist about it.

Here's a link to a discussion. Apparently people have given excess chemotherapy drugs to their oncologist, who has provided them to patients who cannot afford the medications.

http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14598

[Avis]

7. Please don't put them in the toilet

If there is no way to help another person with these drugs, please find an environmental group that can dispose of them properly. They really should not go into the water supply. In our state, the local law enforcement collects the drugs and the state disposes of them so that they do not get into the water.

Hopefully there is a way for you to give them to a person in need. I have lots of excess drugs from my mother and have not found a way yet.

[tavernier]

45. Ok, just because I'm curious...

When this person takes this drug, are they then not supposed to use the toilet... because the drug will be excreted in both the urine and the feces.
Yeah, I like to, pardon the pun, stir up shit once in a while.

[cui bono]

8. Here in Los Angeles there are hazardous waste collection sites run by the city or county.

They take medicine, paint, electronic waste, batteries, pretty much all that sort of thing. There are some permanent ones and they also set up temporary one day collection centers around the city. Perhaps your city/town has something like this?

This is info on the Los Angeles program:
http://www.lacsd.org/solidwaste/swfacilities/recyclecontact/hhw_e_waste/default.asp

I save mine up and then go to one of the sites on a weekend. When I had a pickup truck I would just have it all in the back bed and they just take it out, they didn't even want me to get out of the vehicle.

[1-Old-Man]

11. I'm up in the mountains of West Virginia, with a septic system.

Of course anything that goes into the septic system still ends up in the water-table, but it would be interesting to know what the drug might do the the little turd-eating thingees that live in there. Could end up like a 1960's Japanese SiFi flick, with giant spiders or cockroaches coming up out of the ground and fighting radioactive lizards with glowing green eyes.

[cbayer]

14. That's hilarious.

I have a holding tank and have bought pretty much every product on the market to try and keep those thingees from producing the noxious gas that is a by-product of their work.

Nothing has ever worked very well. Perhaps chemotherapy agents would help, lol.

[mitchtv]

15. and a bunch of transgender catfish downstream

nt

[KT2000]

28. Our county had Septics 101

classes. There I learned that if anyone in the household is on chemo drugs, the septic tank should be pumped when they are through taking the drugs. Apparently they interfere with the action inside the tank that degrades the stuff. I am guessing it is also to protect the ground water.

[1-Old-Man]

55. Thanks, I'll pass that along to my wife.

Sort of a to do list for after I die, which now looks to be coming sometime in the late winter or early spring.

[1-Old-Man]

56. I actually found a way to get the pills into needing hands ... But

I have let this thread go because I think it has provoked a good conversation.

[Buns_of_Fire]

60. OMG... I'm so sorry...

[hollysmom]

16. I would give it to someone at a chemo support group.

We gave my father's pills to parkinson's group, they share there.

[cynatnite]

17. What about the American Cancer Society? Maybe they'd know? n/t

[leftstreet]

18. Ask your pharmacist

You can also check

http://www.disposemymeds.org/index.php/pharmacy-locator

[NightWatcher]

19. is it Methotrexate 2mg pills?

I take a handful of those every week.

[jwirr]

20. I have had extra supplies left over when prescriptions are changed etc. I have found that the RN

for our county home health agency will often know another patient that is using the same item. I give them to them and no questions asked. That goes for many of the supplies we get and do not use. Also Salvation Army take some supplies.

[alfie]

21. I would start with your oncologist.

He/she is the most likely to know someone who could use the drugs. When my nephew died and I was trying to dispose of his remaining drugs (none were chemo) his family physician took the ones that were in unit dose, ie pre-packaged. The loose pills I was instructed to put in a jar and cover with bleach and then discard. His pharmacy would not take any of them back to redistribute or to destroy.

[kestrel91316]

22. For liability reasons no doctor is going to take them from you to give to someone else.

Put an ad on Craigslist to give them away but have the person who wants them show you their existing prescription bottle or doctor's written prescription before giving them to a stranger.

[MattBaggins]

23. Does craigslist have a forum for illegally dispensing prescription drugs?

I would imagine it would be flagged and removed rather quickly.

[kestrel91316]

24. Nothing illegal about giving somebody unneeded pharmaceuticals as long as they aren't controlled

substances.

There's no legal basis for flagging and removing it.

[Ms. Toad]

26. It actually generally is against the law.

Typically a misdemeanor, unless it is a controlled substance. For controlled substances it is typically a felony.

[kestrel91316]

30. Got a link? It's a misdemeanor for me to give my neighbor my leftover Augmentin to get her by until

she can get her own Rx filled at the drugstore?

You aren't seriously suggesting that we aren't free to do with our own personal property what we wish (as long as no controlled substances are invulved)?

[Ms. Toad]

48. Under federal, and many state laws, yes.

Here's one link for you (Arizona) - it just happens to be the easiest to find: http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/13/03406.htm

And since (in addition) there are specific parallel laws regarding veterinary prescriptions, I'm kind of surprised that this is a surprise to you.

[MattBaggins]

53. In Arizona if harms comes to someone you give prescription drugs to

you are civilly and criminally liable.

[MattBaggins]

29. Why is this warning at my local pharmacy?

The possession or use of prescription drugs that are not prescribed to you are strictly prohibited by law. Legal consequences for the possession and criminal sale of prescription drugs may include fines and imprisonment

[kestrel91316]

32. "criminal sale" - words do have meaning. If some cop tried to cite somebody for

taking somebody else's prescription Motrin the case would be laughed out of court.

[MattBaggins]

35. Sorry but it is even in college level student handbooks

and includes the term sharing as being illegal.

If the person who took a prescription motrin were injured from it, that court would do anything but laugh.

It breaks laws on both ends. Distributing and receiving.

Don't do it.

[kestrel91316]

44. They have to say that for liability reasons.

[TorchTheWitch]

25. I don't think you can legally do that

I mean, give them to anyone sealed bottle, prescription or no, and I certainly would never advertise publicly to do that without finding out definitively. IIRC it's against federal law to give or sell medication that is prescribed to you to someone else. Which makes sense. Doctors need to know how much or what medications their patient's are taking and that they're only being taken at the prescribed dose for the prescribed length of time.

I would never sell or give any prescription of mine to another person whether they have the same prescription or not. I don't have medical malpractice insurance in case the person I gave or sold those meds to used them incorrectly or heaven forbid killed themselves with them by taking them all at once nor do I have a medical license to prescribe or dispense prescription medication, nor do I know if that person is still under doctor's orders to take them, how much and for how long. Liability reasons isn't just for doctors, you know.

Suppose I gave my meds still in their sealed bottle to someone with a prescription for them and that person took them all to kill themselves? Guess who is liable for their death? Suppose unknown to me their doctor decided to have them stop taking that medication for some reason yet the person wants the medication because they personally believe that they need them, and by taking those meds I gave them it injured or killed them? Guess who is liable? Suppose the doctor for that person told them to stop taking that medication and prescribed another one that can't be mixed with it and something happens to them because they took both? Guess who is liable?

A person would have to be off their rocker to give or sell their prescription meds to anyone else despite their good intentions. And the flip side is that a person would have to be off their rocker to buy or take prescription meds from someone else - even sealed bottles can be tampered with pretty damn easily.

Right on every bottle of prescribed medication is the following warning:
"Federal law PROHIBITS the transfer of this drug to any person other than the patient for whom it was prescribed."

I'm shocked that as a medical professional you wouldn't be aware of this. Even all of my pet medications carry the exact same warning even when dispensed by the vet clinic (they're actually usually cheaper than the pharmacies).

[kestrel91316]

34. I can't prescribe something to a patient I have not got a valid veterinarian-client-patient

relationship with. And I can't sell somebody a prescription drug over the counter without prescribing it. That's the only pharmacy law I really need to know. I'm NOT an attorney, and I'm not a pharmacist, so I don't know ALL pharmacy laws.

That said, it's absurd to meddle in people's lives to the extent that you can't pass on a med that somebody else could use, when it's already been prescribed to them. Good luck enforcing this, Nazis. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

[MattBaggins]

36. Should you, with that attitude, be practicing medicine of any kind?

You don't need to know the laws and you feel people should just do as they please with potential medications?

[kestrel91316]

40. I'm a veterinarian. I am quite strict about complying with laws as they pertain to my practice.

I am entitled to my opinion about how absurd it is that it's a crime to give a friend one of your own prescription Motrins.

I most certainly do not need to know ANY laws that have no relevance to my practice. Like I said, I'm not an attorney.

Clients tell me all the time how they give one cat's medicine to another cat. I may sigh and suggest that they at least check with me before they do that, but guess what??? I don't call the cops on them. I know. I'm a terrible person.

[kestrel91316]

42. Good little authoritarian, aren't you? I never did think you fit the liberal mold very well.

[TorchTheWitch]

39. no it isn't absurd

and for the very reasons I gave.

[kestrel91316]

41. MUST. OBEY. STOOPIT. RULES. NO. EXCEPTIONS.

[TorchTheWitch]

46. they ARE NOT "stoopit"

Again, because of the reasons I gave.

[Curmudgeoness]

43. I agree with you.

It is no one's business if we offer unused meds to someone who already has a prescription for that med. And it does happen all the time. Luckily, there are health professionals who have more compassion than the law, and will help hook people up with someone who cannot afford their medicine.

[MattBaggins]

49. Yes it is the business of the FDA if people are dispensing medicine

without a license.

[Curmudgeoness]

50. I suggest that charities could do so

if the laws allowed it. We don't have to take an either/or attitude on this. Charities could determine that the person getting the medication have a prescription and the need.

I hate waste. I hate waste of food, or clothing, or energy, or anything else. Why should a $5000 drug be any different?

[MattBaggins]

52. I don't disagree

In fact I posted down thread a link to such programs based on state.

My issue is that it still needs to be controlled and regulated. A doctor or pharmacist needs to be in charge of such programs due to people who will use false prescriptions to obtain drugs to resell or people who will sell fake drugs. How is Joe off the street going to know if the person he is giving drugs to really has a legitimate script? Is the person going to take the medicine and sell them for exorbitant fee to someone in dire straits?

The person calling me a Nazi and questioning whether I am a Liberal, was suggesting using craigslist which I don't think allowing craigslist to operate as an unregulated pharmacy for used drugs is even remotely sane much less safe.

[Curmudgeoness]

57. LOL, I am not calling you a Nazi,

in fact, I agree with you about just giving drugs to someone on the street....or who you contacted on craigslist. But we really have to have a way to get rid of unused drugs that does not mean destroying them. Too many people are in dire need.

And thanks for posting the link to programs....I will have to check it out.

[Ms. Toad]

27. Whether you will be able to legally transfer them to someone else

will depend on state law.

In Ohio, it is legal for certain charity care organizations to accept sealed medications to dispense to their clients. They cannot accept/distribute opne packages. Some other states have similar laws. Either your pharmacist, or potentially your insurer, may be able to give you information.

It was my insurance company that brought this to my attention, because my doctor was uncertain how long I would need to be on medication and was prescribing it a few days at a time. Each 1-2 day prescription cost me a full month's specialty co-pay, so after I paid $375 for 5 day's worth I was trying to figure out how to only have one co-pay ($125) for up to a month's worth without having to throw away the remainder if I only needed it for a few more days. The customer service rep suggested I get the doctor to write a prescription for 30 days - and gave me the name of an entity which provided charity care so I could donate the rest.

[MattBaggins]

31. Here is a start

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/state-prescription-drug-return-reuse-and-recycling.aspx

Important to note: Programs must involve a pharmacist.

You can not offer them on craigslist. You would be illegally dispensing medicine without a license.

[Hekate]

33. Talk to your oncologist. I know doctors give away samples to help their patients afford drugs...

I hope that yours (even the open bottle) will fall into this category and help someone else.

I'm glad you're getting better!

[MattBaggins]

37. No ethical doctor will dispense an open bottle

Risk of tampering, adulteration, or expiration not to mention the liability.

[Hekate]

38. That point has been made. However the sealed bottle is still of use, and the doc can dispose ...

... of the others in a safe manner.

[Yo_Mama]

47. Call any local cancer clinic and tell them what you have

Some will redistribute them free of cost to the needy.

If you were being treated at a cancer clinic, that's the first place to ask. It's illegal, but it is done all the time.

[rug]

51. After reading this thread, I'm going to petition for a Pillgeon.

[dem in texas]

54. I had this situation a few years back

I had a lot of expensive medicine from my mother, some never opened or used. I found it was way to complicated to donate it and most of the places that take donated medicines for underdeveloped countries want commonly used medicines like antibiotics or medicine for chronic conditions. I ended up wrapping all the bottles in a plastic bag and putting in the garbage, so it went to the landfill. It just made me sick to throw away all that good medicine when there is so much need.

[enlightenment]

58. Depending on your state,

you might check with a veterinarian. In Nevada, they are allowed to use medications given to one patient for another - with provisos . . . and who knows, they might be able to use your chemo drug.

I'm GUESSING - I have no idea. It's just a thought.

[Rowdyboy]

59. I picked up my first bottle of Nexavar, a liver-chemo drug Thursday from the social worker at my

cancer center. She had gotten them back from a patient who was no longer able to take them. The bottle was open but at about the price you mentioned I don't mind using throw-aways at all. Please try to find someone like that who can direct them to someone who needs them. God knows, its going to be my only hope.