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Ogden • Putting a drop box for unused prescription drugs in the city's public safety offices would be dangerous — and besides, people can safely flush most of them down toilets or toss them in the garbage, Police Chief Jon Greiner says.
But those moves can put drugs into waterways or pills into the hands of addicts, say Utah officials who oversee substance-abuse programs and environmental and water-quality issues.
"It's documented that the medications are getting into the environment and that putting them in the trash can lead to diversion," said Leah Ann Lamb, assistant director for Utah's Division of Water Quality, who helped establish protocols for the state's drug disposal program. "Our program leads to destruction."
Since 2007, 59 permanent disposal boxes have been placed in police departments across 16 Utah counties, she said.
In a City Council work session earlier this week, Greiner resisted putting a drop box at his facility at 2186 Lincoln Ave., where emergency dispatch services for Weber and Davis counties are based. Weber County has nine drop boxes in other locations.
Federal regulations require that these depositories be housed within law enforcement agencies where a police officer has direct oversight of disposed materials.
"I don't want that box put in my lobby," Greiner said. "You're putting our facility and the civilians who empty that container in jeopardy."
He asserted that only about 10 percent of drugs, such as those containing hormones, are types that should not end up in toilets or landfills.
While acknowledging that more Utahns now die from prescription-drug overdoses than motor vehicle accidents, Greiner voiced objections to the added workload, expense and liability that his department would incur.
"You run the risk of allowing anything to end up in that box if you don't monitor it well," Greiner said.
Lamb said drop boxes are "well-established and embraced in other counties," noting that so far, they've seen none of the safety problems that Greiner fears.
Utah's alarming increase in prescription drug overdose deaths — which have jumped more than tenfold since 1991 — is linked to availability, said Lana Schow, prevention specialist for Weber Human Services.
More than one-third of Utahns received prescriptions for narcotic and opiate pain medications in 2008, and of those, 72 percent had leftovers and 71 percent reported keeping them, Schow said, citing data from the state's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
"That increases the risk of abuse and death," Schow said, noting that 55 percent of Utahns age 12 and older reported obtaining such addictive drugs for free from someone they knew.
In 2009, the Layton Police Department carted 739 pounds of unused meds from its drop-box program to the incinerator at Wasatch Integrated Waste Management. With discounted rates for law enforcement, the Layton-based burn plant charged them a total of $18, Lamb said.
Bill Wentland, a detective in the Morgan County Sheriff's Office, touted the success of the program in his 8,000-resident area.
"We've had a box at our site for about a year now — it takes about an hour of my time each week," Wentland said.
His agency hauled 20 pounds to the incinerator last year.
"When I thought about it going into the water, I was glad we could burn it," Wentland said, noting that wastewater treatment plants are not set up to deal with pharmaceuticals.
In addition to helping the environment, Wentland sees a larger benefit.
"If we save one kid's life, it's worth it," Wentland said. "We've seen such an increase in opiate deaths, it's scary."
Mary Hazard, assistant environmental health administrator for the Weber-Morgan Health Department, said recent studies connect drug-infused waterways to the feminization of fish.
"That's why we're concerned," Hazard said. "We expect there are effects on aquatic life. We don't yet know the unanticipated effects [of drugs in water] on humans." —
Where to drop drugs
The following law enforcement agencies in Weber and Morgan counties have permanent drug-disposal boxes: Farr West, Harrisville, Marriott-Slaterville, Morgan County Sheriff's Office, North Ogden, Riverdale, Roy, South Ogden and the Weber County Sheriff's Complex.
In conjunction with the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, many Utah law enforcement agencies will host a drop-off event on April 30. Find details at http://www.medicationdisposal.utah.gov.
Information about disposing of unwanted medications is at http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/faq.html. —
Drugs in the environment
Park City's Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District posted data about the effects of drugs on area waterways at http://www.sbwrd.org/docs/nrr2010.pdf.
National data about pharmaceuticals found in soil irrigated with reclaimed water can be found at toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/pharm_soils/index.html. —
What to do with drugs?
Get recommendations on how to dispose of pharmaceuticals to avoid contamination. › B5