A pilot program for disposing of unwanted prescription medications has become a permanent fixture in San Juan County.

“Everyone has stepped up – across the board,” Ray’s Pharmacy owner Rick Hughes said. “This is good policy without politics.”

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition launched a prescription drug take-back program, beginning in August, at Ray’s Pharmacy on Orcas, Friday Harbor Drug and Lopez Pharmacy.

The program was so successful that collaborators – local pharmacies, sheriff’s office, and island prevention coalitions – have decided to make it permanent. It is made possible by a federal grant from the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition.

“We have hundreds of pounds of pharmaceuticals that have been turned back so far, so the problem was acute, I think, for many people who had these prescriptions and didn’t know what to do with them,” Sheriff Bill Cumming said.

For the past five months, medications could be dropped off only on one day of the month. Soon there will be disposal boxes at the Orcas, Lopez, and Friday Harbor pharmacies and sheriff stations. Pharmacists can’t legally touch the drugs once they’re returned, so sheriff’s deputies will periodically empty the boxes.

“Our box is waiting at the sheriff’s office, but since we’ll only be in our current location for two to three more months, we don’t want to have the expense of bolting it down, etc. and then have to move it,” said Marge McCoy of Lopez Pharmacy, which is moving to the corner of Weeks and Lopez Road.

In the meantime, medications can be dropped off at the Fisherman Bay Road sheriff substation. Because the station is unmanned, Cumming says it is likely they will install a secure, outdoor drop-off box within the next few weeks.

Prescriptions will be destroyed in special high temperature waste incinerators. If burned a lower temperatures, the medications emit harmful gases. Milwaukee-based Capital Returns has been generating electricity through prescription waste incineration since about 2007. While San Juan County doesn’t have its own approved incinerator, Cumming said he will be working with other counties that do.

The problem with old prescriptions is two-fold: if flushed or washed down the drain, they pollute the environment; if left in the medicine cabinet, they can fall into the wrong hands. Teen use of prescription drugs is a rising trend across the U.S. Prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused category of drugs, second only to marijuana and used more commonly than cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs, according to www.prescription-drug-abuse.org.

Cumming hopes the program will make prescription drug abuse a little more difficult.

“Studies show unauthorized use of pharmaceuticals are very common among drug users who steal them from homes, friends, family and neighbors; this stops their access,” he said.

Added McCoy: “Getting these unused and expired drugs out of circulation properly is so important. Having them around leaves open the possibilities for misuse (whether inadvertent or deliberate – it’s a big problem), theft, or improper disposal. We don’t need drugs working their way into our ground water, and we don’t need them collecting in someone’s medicine cabinet waiting for a mishap.”