Drop-off boxes: at police stations or nowhere

As published in the Record Journal Sunday March 31, 2013

By Jesse Buchanan
Record-Journal staff
jbuchanan@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2230
Twitter: @JBuchananRJ

WALLINGFORD - The idea of a medication drop-off box at the police station has drawn opposition from town officials, but pharmacies are also reluctant to host the boxes even if they were allowed to under state and federal law.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration rules don’t allow pharmacies to take back leftover medicine, according to Marghie Giuliano, executive vice president of the Connecticut Pharmacists Association.

The state Department of Consumer Protection requires that the boxes be located in the lobbies of police stations.

Wallingford Chief Douglas Dortenzio said he doesn’t want the Police Department to bear the cost of hosting a drop box, saying the department can’t be a substitute for responsible citizens. Republican Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. has supported Dortenzio’s position.

Supporters of the box have said the cost is minimal and an easy way to tackle the serious problem of prescription drug abuse.

A founding member of the Coalition for a Better Wallingford, Ken Welch, has advocated for the drop box as a way to counter prescription drug abuse. His partner’s daughter Taylor Short, 20, died in November of an apparent drug overdose.

Welch said he looked into having drop boxes at pharmacies but found it was illegal. He’d like to see it, though.

“I think the industry does bear some responsibility,” he said. “We’re flooding the market with this stuff and there’s no good way to retrieve it.”

Rules on drug returns are being examined, but Giuliano said pharmacies shouldn’t bear the cost of installing and monitoring drop boxes when they’re not entirely responsible for the medications.

“I don’t think it would be fair to put the burden on the pharmacies,” she said. “The pharmacies are selling them, but should it be the doctors? Should it be the pharmaceutical companies who are manufacturing them?

“The end user should be in some way responsible for disposing of medications properly,” Giuliano said.

State Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, said changing state and federal laws to allow drop boxes at pharmacies isn’t the easiest way to address the problem.

“Whether one group in Wallingford could change a federal law, I don’t know how feasible that is,” she said. “We have to do what’s possible.”

Thirty towns in the state have drop boxes at their police stations, Mushinsky said.

“It seems to be the easier way to go,” she said.

Town Councilor Jason Zandri, a Democrat running for mayor, pointed out the large quantity of prescription drugs collected at the Southington Police Department.

“If Southington in four months collected 400 pounds (of drugs), clearly someone’s using it,” Zandri said.

Volunteers have offered to install the box, and Zandri said police pay related to cataloging the drugs taken in could be donated.

“I’m sure we could fundraise it if this town is so broke,” he said.

Zandri wasn’t aware of any studies that quantify the effectiveness of medicine drop boxes, but said it was an inexpensive measure that could help.

“It probably would be hard to prove anyway,” he said.

Jerry Farrell Jr., a former state consumer protection commissioner, also didn’t know of any data on whether drop boxes have helped reduce prescription drug abuse. The department sponsors drug take-back days on which unused medicines are collected.

Conscientious citizens are likely already disposing of their drugs properly, while those most at risk likely wouldn’t use a drop box, he said.

The “moderately conscientious” would be the ones most likely to benefit from having somewhere to deposit unused medicines, Farrell said.

“I think it’s a good thing to have out there,” he said. “You want to offer people an opportunity to get rid of them.”

“As a culture we need to be doing more of this,” Farrell said.

According to the federal Food and Drug Administration, some drugs should be flushed down the toilet but only if it’s recommended on the drug’s label. If not, drugs can be mixed with something undesirable, like coffee grounds, and thrown away. Drugs can also be brought to drug take-back days, the FDA said.

At some pharmacies, drug envelopes can be picked up that allow customers to mail back unused drugs, according to Giuliano. Drugs containing controlled substances, such as Oxycontin, can’t be mailed back, however, and those drugs are the ones most often abused.

“Certainly we’re all concerned about the excess of medications in individuals’ homes and the potential for drug abuse,” Giuliano said.

She said the best place for drop boxes is in police stations where the boxes can be monitored and secured. Taking drugs back at pharmacies introduces the risk of mixing returned drugs with new drugs, she said.

“What seems like something simple can be very complex,” Giuliano said. “It would certainly be a real cost to provide this service for pharmacies.”

Wallingford: Drop-box decision – Editorial in the Record Journal Sunday March 17, 2013

As published in the Record Journal on Sunday March 17, 2013

Wallingford Police Chief Douglas Dortenzio should reconsider a recent decision to deny installation of a medication drop box in his department’s station.

Abuse of prescription pills is a harmful problem in communities of all types. Ingesting analgesic opioids like Oxycontin and Percocets causes euphoric feelings analogous to taking heroin, a similarly constructed compound. And like heroin, these powerful pain-killing medications, when used recreationally and frequently, lead to addiction, increased tolerance, greater doses required to achieve highs, escalating health problems and, in some cases, overdose and death. Doctors prescribe these potent drugs for individuals in extreme pain. After removing their molars, dental surgeons may send people home with a few Percocets. It’s not uncommon for discharged patients to take analgesics appropriately until physical anguish subsides, but then leave half-filled medicine bottles in household cabinets. Friends and relatives can then steal unguarded, unused opioids for personal abuse or to sell. Addicts sometimes break into residences in search of these narcotics.

Many citizens may not realize the danger of old pills stored in closets and bathrooms. Thus, one would think Wallingford law-enforcement representatives would support local systems for collection and destruction of unwanted prescriptions. Instead, Dortenzio dismissed reasonable requests from the Coalition for a Better Wallingford to establish a public drop box in police headquarters.

The chief’s arguments are illogical. The “most common method” for prescription disposal, he curiously proffered, is for residents to throw away unwanted pills (R-J, 3-14). Surely, Dortenzio in his long career must understand that mono-focused addicts, without second thought, could rip through someone’s trash should they think Oxycontins buried within. And his suggestion that drop-box installation would cause foot traffic issues in police headquarters and parking problems outside is an overestimation of logistics.

“I can’t be a substitute for responsible citizens,” Dortenzio stated in our news story. But wouldn’t responsible action for residents be bringing drugs to police for proper, documented, supervised destruction? The chief also believed maintaining a drop box would require from his department too extensive commitment of man-hours and paperwork. However, 27 state towns already provide comparable disposal services, including Cheshire and Southington. It’s worth the extra effort to save local lives and boost community safety.

Members of the Coalition for a Better Wallingford have secured state grants and local-business support so that drop box purchase and drug destruction would cost taxpayers nothing. Brought before Town Council, the concept received mostly warm reception. Legal approval, however, may remain under the authority of Dortenzio.

He should end his resistance. At the very least, this would be symbolic of town police supporting thorough means of limiting local drug abuse. But a public drop box could also accomplish much more — it would offer residents a safer option for ridding homes of unused prescriptions while also serving as a proactive step toward deterring crime and addiction.

Wallingford Police Chief: No need for drug drop-off

As published in the Record Journal on Thursday March 14, 2013

By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter:@AndyRagz

WALLINGFORD – Residents should take personal responsibility and dispose of unwanted medication on their own, said Police Chief Douglas Dortenzio, who opposes a medication drop box at the police station.

While Dortenzio said he is “not opposed to the concept of disposing of drugs” for safety reasons, he said “the general public has been disposing of personal medications for decades without the assistance of law enforcement.”

The safest way to dispose of medication is to put it out with the trash, he said. “I can’t be a substitute for responsible citizens.”

Dortenzio was responding to a request from the Coalition for a Better Wallingford, which continues to push for a medication drop box at police headquarters.

A founding member of the group, Ken Welch, presented his case for the medication drop box before the Town Council on Tuesday night. Following Welch’s presentation, Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said he would defer to Dortenzio on the question of installing and operating a drop box at the police station.

“The most common method that’s available to everyone is to dispose them in the garbage,” Dickinson said.

Welch said “there’s no good reason” to oppose a medication drop box at the department. He said the push for a drop box was part of the coalition’s work to stem the tide of drug use and overdose deaths in Wallingford. Welch said the Police Department considered a medication drop box months ago, but he “was told it was undoable” because of stringent requirements by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which oversees all medication drop box programs in the nation. At the time, Welch said the DEA required every pill in a drop box to be inventoried, which he agreed would be a tedious and wasteful task. Those requirements have been lifted, Welch said, and now the Police Department must only report the total pounds collected annually.

But Dortenzio said Wednesday that current requirements are impractical.

“The conditions of doing these drug boxes are more cumbersome than what we do on a daily basis,” Dortenzio said, explaining that when drugs are seized by law enforcement, they are easier to process.

To legally have a medication drop box, Dortenzio said, two officers must have independent keys to open the box. Every time the box is opened, he said, medication must be logged and weighed, and a case report must be filed. That doesn’t happen with other drug seizures, Dortenzio said.

Dortenzio also argued that the Police Department lobby is not suitable for a medication drop box because of its small size. Placing the box in the lobby would create handicapped- accessibility issues, he said. Dortenzio said parking is limited as well, which would make it difficult for people to stop by and drop off medication. Dortenzio said the medication drop box can’t go anywhere besides the lobby because at least one police officer must be able to see the box throughout the day.

“It’s got to be an efficient and effective means,” Dortenzio said, adding that the debate alone had been helpful in spreading the word to rid households of unnecessary medication.

Welch said the coalition can have the box paid for through a grant, and Covanta Energy has agreed to burn the medication free of charge. He said that labor expenses are the only issue the Police Department would have to deal with,and those expenses are “worth it.”

He said 27 towns in the state have already adopted medication drop boxes, including Cheshire and Southington.

Major pharmacies in town, such as Stop & Shop, Rite Aid and CVS on North Colony Road, and Walgreens on South Colony Road, do not have any drug take-back programs.

Since December, Welch said, the Southington Police Department has collected 400 pounds of unwanted medication. Southington Police Sgt. Mike Baribault said that department’s drop box is emptied monthly. Every time it’s emptied, he said, a police report is filed and the medication is stored in the evidence room until it is destroyed.

Dortenzio said that, whether medication is discarded in residential trash or in a drop box, it’s all burned at the same location, so there’s no point in a medication drop box.

Town councilors were more receptive to the idea, however. On Wednesday, Town Councilor Tom Laffin said that discarding medication in the trash isn’t the answer because people desperate to abuse medications can easily rummage through the trash and salvage what was thrown out. But Dortenzio said that “if a parent has a suspicion that their children do that, it’s incumbent on the parents to dispose of the medication when their children aren’t watching.” Laffin, along with a majority of the Town Council, showed support for the drop box on Tuesday night. The subject was tabled so that the council could obtain more information on the process.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Laffin said Wednesday. “I know there’s some work to do and logistics to go over.”

Town Councilor Rosemary Rascati said Wednesday that she also supports the plan, but wants more information because “I don’t know exactly what it entails.”

“My initial reaction is that it’s a great idea,” she said.

While Town Councilor Vincent Cervoni said Wednesday that he is “generally supportive” of the drop box, “I just have to figure out how to make it happen.”

“I don’t know that I’m sold (on) the idea totally at this point,” said Town Councilor Craig Fishbein, who cited accessibility issues and DEA requirements as potential roadblocks.

Town Attorney Gerald Farrell Sr. said the council doesn’t have the authority to get the drop box installed. He said he couldn’t comment on whether the mayor could instruct the police chief to install the box because it is a hypothetical question. Dickinson said that theoretically he is the public safety director for the town and could direct the Police Department, but a medication drop box is “not the prime mission of the department.”

Dortenzio “is the person who knows best what needs to be done on a daily basis in order to accomplish any given task,” Dickinson said, adding that he understands the chief’s concerns.

While Dortenzio is against a medication drop box at the Police Department, he said the department takes part in a drug take-back program administered by the DEA twice a year. The next event is April 27, when he said a circular path is created at the driveway of the police station so residents can drive through and conveniently “just hand it off.”

Welch said he would continue to fight for the drop box. “We’ve dealt with each of the chief’s objections,” he said. “I would like to believe they’re putting a healthy effort into putting in a drug box ... It’s painful that you have to waste time on these arguments.”