West Virginia Considers Recycling Medication Plan
The West Virginia Board of Pharmacy is researching the benefits and drawbacks of a potential state program that would redistribute unused medications to low-income individuals.
Some of the issues involved with this plan include potential contamination and access to unused medications, since many West Virginia hospitals currently ship off expired drugs to the manufacturer.
The state already has the program West Virginia Rx to provide free medications to low-income individuals, but these drugs are donated from pharmaceutical companies and not recycled.
A 2008 BlueCross BlueShield report cited West Virginia as the most medicated state in the U.S., with an average of 17.4 prescriptions per person. While 36 states currently have drug recycling programs, West Virginia is not one of them.
Regardless of where you live, use Earth911 to find an event or program to properly dispose of outdated medications in your area.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
barbara nolan
posted on November 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am
I feel that unused medication is an untapped resource in this country.
As an oncology nurse I see many medications that are unused after a patient expires or after the medication is no longer effective or appropriate for that patient.
I have been talking to my colleagues about this problem for years but don;t know where to go with it.
There are many medications in this country that have not even been opened.