CENTRAL IOWA – Walgreens in launching a new medication disposal program in Iowa.
Eight Walgreens pharmacies across the state will get safe disposal bins, including ones in Des Moines, Clive and Ankeny. And with prescription drug abuse becoming more of a problem in Iowa, state leaders are hoping these bins can help stop it.
“Walgreens joins a growing list of Iowa pharmacies and law enforcement organizations that are stepping up the efforts as part of a solution to increasingly address this dangerous problem of abuse of prescription drugs,” Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said.
Many say that solution includes safe disposal bins, like the ones being introduced by Walgreens.
People can drop either unused or expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications in them – all at no cost. And Gov. Branstad believes they will make a big difference.
“If we can prevent people from inappropriately or illegally getting prescription drugs, we can hopefully reduce abuse of opioids and save people’s lives,” Gov. Branstad said.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say deaths involving prescription overdoses have quadrupled in the United States since 1999. And that is a statistic Walgreens noticed.
“As a pharmacy we determined we could and that we should play a stronger role in reducing the misuse of medications and help reduce this rise of overdose deaths through this program,” said Mike Fuller, a local health care supervisor for Walgreens.
The Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy is encouraging people to use the bins, saying leaving pills around the house in dangerous.
“We know about 70 to 75 percent of young people who start experimenting with prescription drugs actually get them outside the medicine cabinets of family and friends,” said Steven Lukan, the director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy.
And officials say the new safe disposal bins are a way to curb that.
“This is going to make it easier and more convenient for more people to do it,” Gov. Brandstad said.
Officials also say putting unused medicine in safe disposal bins is better than throwing them out of flushing them down the toilet because of environmental reasons.
Walgreens is hoping to get 500 of them in pharmacies nationwide.
State officials also say they are working on more educational programming to help slow down opioid abuse in Iowa.
