How do you properly dispose of old medication?

I personally don't currently take any mediation, but due to a family crisis I am learning all kinds of stuff about medication as I help my mother and father-in-law in their current circumstances.

I recently helped my father-in-law in organizing his current set of medications he takes.  I was guided by my wife, who does take medication.   Well after sorting out all his pills and getting them organized we had 5 bottles of medication to get rid of.  I would like to get rid of these medications properly, rather than just throw them in the garbage where some person or animal could get a hold of them and harm themselves.

So what are the options out there?

I found two different options.  One is to use the National Take Back Initiative.  This program runs once a year in October.  They have a site you can go to and enter your Zip code to find the closest drop off sites near you https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/SEARCH-NTBI/ [1]

This year the collection day is Oct 26 2013.

So by the time you read this it will have passed.

Another method I found is at Walgreens.  Walgreens has a Safe Medication Disposal Program, you can read more about it here http://www.walgreens.com/topic/sr/sr_safe_medication_disposal.jsp [2]

The long and short of it is you can go to your local Walgreens store and buy a TakeAway return system.   I did just that this morning.   Walgreens charged me $3.99 + tax for it.

Here is a front image of the box

Here is the back side.

The package contained one envelope with a pre-paid postage stamp on it and a set of instructions.

(I blacked out the USPS code in this image just in case)

Looking at the instructions there are a few types of drugs you can't put in here.  They say no controlled prescription drugs. The short list of controlled drugs they give as an example are

·         Addreall

·         Ambien

·         Hydrocodone

·         Morphine

·         Oxycodone

·         Ocycontin

·         Percocet

·         Phentermine

·         Ritalin

·         Valium

·         Vicodin

·         Xanax

In my case none the drugs I had to send in were "controlled" drugs, so I simple slipped them in pill bottle and all.  In fact they want you to keep them in their pill bottles.   There are some further instructions for liquids.

I easily put 5 pill bottles in this bag.  I would guess it should hold about 10ish.

I sealed it up and took it to a local mail drop.  I am in a condo and we don't have a place to put large packages going out so I had to drive by and put it in an old style mailbox.

Overall I like the kit,  I wish it were free but $4 is not bad to have the ease of mind your pills are being disposed of properly.

References

[1]  National Take Back Initiative Collection Site Search

       https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/SEARCH-NTBI/

       Visited 10/2013

[2]  Safe Medication Disposal Program

      http://www.walgreens.com/topic/sr/sr_safe_medication_disposal.jsp

       Visited 10/2013