Don’t flush leftover meds — mix with kitty litter

[flashl]

Experts say icky disposal method safer for kids and environment

It's time to pooper-scoop your leftover medicine.

Mixing cough syrup, Vicodin or Lipitor with cat litter is the new advice on getting rid of unused medications. Preferably used cat litter.

It's a compromise, better for the environment than flushing — and one that renders dangerous medicines too yucky to try if children, pets or drug abusers stumble through the trash.


A government experiment is about to send that advice straight to thousands of patients who use potent painkillers, sleeping pills and other controlled substances.

Why? Prescription drug abuse is on the rise, and research suggests more than half of people who misuse those drugs get them for free from a friend or relative. In other words, having leftovers in the medicine cabinet is a risky idea. Anyone visiting your house could swipe them.

So 6,300 pharmacies around the country have signed up for a pilot project with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. When patients fill prescriptions for a list of abuse-prone medicines, from Ambien to Vicodin, the pharmacist also will hand over a flyer urging them to take the cat-litter step if they don't wind up using all their pills.

Not a cat owner? Old coffee grounds work, or doggie doo, even sawdust. Just seal the meds and the, er, goop in a plastic bag before tossing in the trash.

Read More ...

Tabby scratching in oxycontin? Doesn't sound good.

[truedelphi]

1. Bad idea for our nation's doggies.(Disgust alert for this post)

Dogs eat dog poop. They will search through kitty litter and sniff and lick anything there.

As far as Rover, I suppose it's okay if you bag it up and enclose in trash can. But if scavenger birds pick through things at the dump they will be getting offed.

[fishnfla]

2. When my MIL died, hospice made us flush all her potent stuff down the drain

Her oncologist said NO, give it to him, he'll find patienst for it!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. It's bad to flush old meds

Enough get back into our waters via our urine/feces. No need to add to the problem.

[aquart]

3. How about just storing them in a box in the closet or under the bed?

Lordy, they're so scared they won't be able to squeeze the last dime out of us.

Well, I have a bottle of Alex Rothbard's codeine from 1977 and it's the only physical reminder I have of two years watching a man die slowly of lung cancer, while still smoking. I ain't never dumping that bottle.

[Yael]

9. ...

:hug:

Been there and I can appreciate that. :cry:

[Captain Hilts]

4. Ask your local pharmacist for disposal sites/advice. nt

[libodem]

5. I turn stuff back over to the pharmacy

I had synthetic narcotic patches after my back surgery. They made me sweaty and sick, cuz I had them on in the hospital and came home with one on. Bleckh, once I figured out what was causing my sickness, beside the Flexeril, which was god-awful i turned it all in. We used to flush tons of narcs down the hopper at work. We got the word, pills were ending up in the sewage treatment plants whole and presenting an environmental problem. Another thing i heard you can do is mix some water in the pills, to melt it into a mess, and put the cap back on. You'd have to remove the label. I'm not really sure the land-fill is the place for old meds. Kitty -litter would sure discourage anyone from wanting to use old pills, though.

[piesRsquare]

6. Bring unused/expired drugs (OTC included)

to hazardous waste disposal (i.e., the same place you bring paint thinner, household chemicals, etc).

Contact your city/town's waste management department for more info.

[Crunchy Frog]

7. I had a dog who used to eat the kitty litter.

Maybe okay to do if you don't have a dog.

[Yael]

8. I do NOT!!! recommend this

Cats are prone to lick their pads on their feet after the litter box and dogs are known to 'snack' out of the litter box.

The person who suggested this should be shot.

[Kokonoe]

11. Kitty doo doo is high protein, dogs love it.

[Yael]

13. Understood -- why I noted it (as others have).

Why would someone suggest poisoning our pets?

[Kokonoe]

16. sorry wrong post

[Yael]

12. Will also say though that dumping them in used litter gathered for the trash

may be an option. Just don't expose your pets to that.

[Generic Brad]

14. I don't think you're supposed to put the medicine in the litter box

Instead, pack it in litter when you dispose of it.

I used to have a job where we packed hazardous materials that were shipped in barrels to a Superfund site. We packed some containers in kitty litter to prevent breakage and to absorb some liquids should they containers break.

[dysfunctional press]

15. ummmm...you're not supposed to dispose of them in the litter box-

when you CLEAN the litter box, you throw the old meds in with the litter that you're disposing of.

:eyes:...good grief...

[MagickMuffin]

17. I think you should be able to keep them around for when you may need them again

After all you spent hard earned money on them. Why would you want to discard them in the dump?

My in-laws have been to their doctors so much and every time another prescription to fill. The docs don't know what they are giving their patients but they've been told by the legitimate drug pushers that they should just pass it along to their patients.
Well several times the in-laws had trouble with the medication, spent big bucks on them only to find out they were having side effects or worse yet were highly allergic to the medication. The docs would just tell them to come back in and he would write them another prescription.
Hundreds of dollars later, they still had the same problems, only to be used as a guinea pigs once again by prescribing more dangerous drugs.

I wouldn't place any medicine in with the kitty litter, even if it is on the way to the trash. This is just a bad idea.

Why can't people like my in-laws just take back the medicine to their doctors and get prorated on the medicine that was worthless to them?
I know, I know it would eat into the legitimate drug pushers profits. But still I think it should become a practice in this country to sell back unused medications. They could be sold to people without health insurance at a discount.

Of course it could be tampered with but most of those drugs and so dangerous anyway, who would notice.

[stimbox]

18. How about taking them back to the pharmacy? n/t