Alameda County’s Groundbreaking Safe Medication Disposal Ordinance Will Protect Health & Environment

By Larry Cohen, MSW, Executive Director, Prevention Institute

Alameda County, Calif. -- where Prevention Institute is based -- has become the first U.S. county to require safe medication disposal. This critical legislation, designed to "take back drugs and take back lives," will charge drug companies for the safe collection and disposal of unused medications. Safe collection and disposal policies keep medications out of landfills, groundwater and drinking water, and reduce risks of poisoning, suicide, and antibiotic resistance. It's a good and important policy for any one of these reasons alone -- until now there's been virtually no safe, easy way to deal with medications, and nearly every one of us have medicine chests filled with old, unsafe drugs. This is a crucial step in the growing movement to protect public health, safety and the environment.

Alameda County's Safe Medication Disposal provides a comprehensive, collaborative model for communities at the county, state, and federal levels that are working to ensure community health, safety and wellbeing. Now that we've overcome the hurdles and done this the first time, we need to do it everywhere, because every community is facing unnecessary risks right now. As Supervisor Nate Miley, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, said in his recent column in the San Francisco Chronicle, "I imagine producer-funded take-back programs for medications will be standard business practice in the future, much like is done today with rechargeable batteries. It's just the right thing to do, as well as an opportunity for drug companies to stand by their claims of corporate social responsibility."