Disposal

[MSSpouse]

Now that we have replacements for the frozen-in-transit drugs, I'm wondering how to properly dispose of the boxes of dead meds, given that the syringes are still sealed up in their individual packaging. Any thoughts on whether I need to open and empty the syringes?

Actually, I was surprised the pharmacy didn't want them back.

[celia]

1. You do not EVER flush meds down the sink or toilet. It messes up the water supply.
2. Therefore, you do not open syringes. You also don't open syringes to avoid needle sticks with bad stuff.
3. You call up your locality's waste disposal office and find out the rules for disposal of meds. Sometimes pharmacies know about this, too (but not always).

In my community, you collect used Copaxone syringes (and dead/frozen/heat denatured but unused syringes) in the sharps container, then turn in the full container at the landfill office, and they give you a receipt. In some others, certain meds (with syringes in a sharps container) can just be thrown out with the regular garbage.

[MSSpouse]

Thanks for the info. I assumed the safest thing was to keep them sealed, as these are not the usual drugs one would usually rummage around in the trash for, but you never know. There's a lot of dysfunction in our local waste management operations, which makes getting the right answers challenging at times.

[Marinadca]

You might want to call the pharmacy near you, often they will take the drugs and dispose of them for you.

[MSSpouse]

Good idea. We got these by mail order pharmacy (as required by our insurance), but one of their B&M stores is not too far away so I'll give them a call.

Since there was no clear consensus on how these are handled, I went the Google route. As usual, it's like drinking from a fire hose, but I did find one useful tidbit re: a comment above. The FDA actually recommends that, in the absence of a local official drug take-back program, certain drugs should indeed be flushed as the misuse of even a single dose can have grave consequences. None of these are MS drugs, but of course having MS doesn't mean you don't ever get anything else! They note:

"We are aware of recent reports that have noted trace amounts of medicines in the water system. The majority of medicines found in the water system are a result of the body’s natural routes of drug elimination (in urine or feces). Scientists, to date, have found no evidence of harmful effects to human health from medicines in the environment.

Disposal of these select, few medicines by flushing contributes only a small fraction of the total amount of medicine found in the water. When a medicine take-back program isn’t available, FDA believes that any potential risk to people and the environment from flushing this small, select list of medicines is outweighed by the real possibility of life-threatening risks from accidental ingestion of these medicines."

Here's the ridiculously long link:
http://www.fda.gov/drugs/resourcesfo....htm#MEDICINES