The Product Stewardship Institute, our state and local government members, and many federal government agencies promote take-back and mail-back programs as the best strategies for reducing the health and environmental impacts of leftover drugs, and deem trash disposal as a last resort.

Spread the word about proper disposal by placing an opinion piece in your local paper. We recommend first sending this to a high-profile local publication that covers state house bills.Remember, if this is accepted into a daily paper, they have the exclusive and it cannot be sent to other papers.

Send to your paper’s opinion editor in the following format:

[TOWN/COUNTY/STATE NAMENeeds Drug Take-Back Program to Combat Opioid Epidemic]
[SUBMISSION DATE]

Years ago, drug abuse meant an addiction to marijuana, cocaine, or heroin. Today, more Americans die each year from overdoses involving prescription pain relievers than from heroin and cocaine combined, and the rate of opioid deaths exceeds that from car accidents. In fact,on average in the U.S., one citizen dies every 14 minutes from a drug overdose. It’s time we got rid of the threat looming in our homes: leftover prescription drugs.

Each year, over $1 billion worth of drugs go unused, lurking in medicine cabinetsand available to addicts, curious teens, innocent children, and pets. Drug take-back programs — collection receptacles, mail-back envelopes, and events — provide residents with a convenient way to safely dispose of unwanted and expired medications. Removing unwanted prescription drugs from the home reduces their availability to family members or otherswho might come across them. These programs also provide an alternative to trash or drain disposal, which allowspharmaceutical compoundsto enter the environment where they cause serious, documented damage to fish and other aquatic populations.

Since 2010, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has organized twice yearly National Drug Take-Back Days, during which communities canset up drug drop-off locations in conjunction with law enforcement to make up for a lack of collection options at other authorized sites like pharmacies. However, we believe that a convenient,year-round, long-term solution is needed for [TOWN/COUNTY/STATE NAME’s] residents to safely drop off their leftover meds.

While pharmacies – often the most convenient locationto drop-off medications– are allowed to set up collection programs, mostpharmacies have chosen not to take on the expense of doing so. To address this, many states, counties, and citieshave passed drug take-back laws that requirepharmaceutical companies to financeand often manageprograms to provide residents with convenient, safe drop-off sitesat pharmacies and other permissiblelocations. Many other countries also have similar laws that require industry to pay forand manage the proper disposal of the medications they put into the marketplace.

Unfortunately, U.S. pharmaceuticalcompanies resist takingfinancial responsibility for safe drug disposaland continue to promote garbage disposal.It’s time for the American pharmaceutical industry to help address the massive quantities of leftover medicines that contribute to the opioid epidemic, which has torn apart families and imposed unacceptable health costs on society. That’s why we urge [TOWN/COUNTY/STATE NAME] to follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts, Vermont, and othercommunities around the U.S. in passing a drug take-back law that would make the industry responsible for financing and managing a safe disposal program in [TOWN/COUNTY/STATE].

While pharmaceuticals are often beneficial to living a quality life, the companies that produce them need to pay for safe disposal to preventthe external health and environmental costs currently imposed on society when their products are over-prescribed or mismanaged.

[NAME OF SUBMITTER(S), TITLE, AFFILIATION]