GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. — Playing its part to advance drug safety, Kinney Drugs plans to hold medication disposal days later this month and in March.
Dubbed Medicine Collection Days, the safe drug disposal events are typically scheduled for the last Saturday of each month. The next collection dates are Feb. 26 and March 26, at all of Kinney’s 92 drug stores in central and northern New York and Vermont. The chain held its most recent event at the end of January.
"Public safety continues to remain one of our top priorities and commitments to our communities. Improperly disposing of medication can pose a serious threat to the safety of the public, and Kinney Drugs urges the community to use the Medicine Collection Day events as a means of disposal for expired or unused medications," stated Michael Duteau, director of pharmacy operations for Kinney. "After our pharmacists sort the substances, they will be properly destroyed at a federally licensed facility."
At the Medicine Collection Days, Kinney will gather unused or expired noncontrolled prescription medications, ensuring their proper disposal and preventing accidental poisonings, substance abuse and environmental pollution. Only noncontrolled prescriptions are accepted, along with over-the-counter medicines, ointments, sprays, inhalers, creams, medication vials and pet medications.
Prescription drugs formulated with such narcotic ingredients as codeine, hydrocodone (Vicodin) and morphine, for example, aren’t accepted at the events. Also not accepted are illegal drugs, biohazardous materials, needles, personal care products and household hazardous wastes, such as paint or pesticides.
Proper medication disposal has increasingly become an issue of environmental and safety concern nationwide. According to a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 70% to 80% of substance abusers said they took medications that belonged to a friend or relative, underscoring the need for proper, safe drug disposal.
