Klobuchar pushes for safe drug disposal
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:55 am
- 3 Comments
Sen. Amy Klobuchar is pushing legislation that would give patients an option to dispose of unused prescription medications. The Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 is intended to prevent teens from gaining access to parents’ Vicodin and other controlled substances. The bill has strong bipartisan support.
The bill would create a system where patients could return unused drugs to pharmacies or law enforcement. Current federal law doesn’t allow patients to bring drugs to pharmacies and places restrictions on bringing drugs to law enforcement.
“Parents know that keeping unwanted prescription drugs in their homes increases the risk that young people will find them, but current law provides them with few alternatives,” Klobuchar said in a statement on Monday. “By making it easier for people to dispose of controlled substances they no longer need, we reduce teens’ access to these drugs and help curb teen drug abuse.”
Klobuchar introduced the bill with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter3 Comments
Comment posted May 25, 2010 @ 4:19 pm
More liberal nanny-state B.S. We have a plethora of chemicals going into the water supply. I doubt pharmaceuticals are the greatest of our concerns. Flush the damn things or bury them somewhere if they are no longer needed. Good grief, we need the government to save us from us more and more every day. Enough!
Comment posted May 25, 2010 @ 4:25 pm
Right on, Colitisboy! Don’t regulate: just throw it in the Gulf of Mexico!
Comment posted May 27, 2010 @ 12:33 am
A staggering amount of prescription drugs gets flushed every year – so much that trace amounts show up in the drinking water and threaten to induce drug interactions.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3397:
This is a simple relaxation of controlled substance law to make it easier to properly dispose of prescription drugs instead of flushing them or leaving them around where kids can abuse them.
Good job, Senator!
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