Hello all,

So, normally I feel like I have to push myself to write these things. However, I just had a coffee so now I’m all jazzed up!!!

This week I’ve been researching all week. Rather I should say “investigating” because the word “research” has such a strong undertone to it. I’ve been investigating the topic of Pharmaceuticals in our waterways for the past week, and I’m starting to feel like this is the subject I would like to focus on for my internship, outside of my normal duties of course.

Here’s the background…

If you were to open up your medicine cabinet back home, there would be a chance that you would find some sort of expired, or perhaps unused, medicine. The next thought, hopefully at least, would be “I should get rid of this stuff”, which then begs the question, “how do I get rid of this stuff”. In the past the government has recommended that you simply flush the medicine down the drain. Well surprise, surprise we are now starting to find that some of our watersheds and, consequently, our drinking water is starting to have some pharmaceuticals present in it. An AP Press study found that 41 million Americans are drinking tap water contaminated with a whole range of drugs in it, drugs found in these water ways treat everything from high blood pressure and cholesterol to some mental health syndromes.

So why should we care…

Well people are drinking compounds that are designed to initiate and change the ways our bodies work. On top of this, it is currently unknown how these drugs behave when combined together. It is currently not known how or if these compounds effect the human body. Recently, however, it is being noticed that some male fish are starting to lay eggs. These intersex fish are commonly thought to be interacting with the huge amounts of estrogen that we are flushing down the drains. These fish are thought of as a warning sign of the possibility of drugs in our water ways, and possible consequences of being exposed to them over large periods of time.

So what am I supposed to do with these damn drugs???

Well that’s the thing…if you just leave them in your medicine cabinet, there’s a chance that a child or pet might get into them and overdose. This happens more often than thought and in fact my cousin poisoned herself on pills when she was younger. Also some teenagers, who do the darnedest things, think it’s really cool to get high off of prescription drugs. Apparently, it’s thought that these medicines can’t hurt you, because they’re medicine right? We’ve already discussed what happens if you put the drugs down the drain: The water treatment plants can’t take the drugs out of the water and so the drugs are put into the rivers with the “treated” water. Eventually, a town downstream might use this water for tap water. If you think about putting the pills in the garbage, you face the same issues with kids, pets and teenagers. Also these pills go to the dump, where they can dissolve into leachate (or dump juice as I like to call it) which either 1) drains into the ground water or 2) gets taken to a water treatment facility…where the inability of scrubbing the pharmaceuticals out still persists.

Apparently I’m writing a paper now…(strong coffee)

The last option would be to take it to the local law enforcement office. Because everybody loves cops right? Now, intuitively one would think “I’ll just take it back where I got it…the Pharmacy”, but this is barely an option. I found out through my Aunt (who owns an independent pharmacy) that there is a program in which people can take their medications to the pharmacist who dispenses these pills into a large brown box and mail it back to a company (Sharps inc.) that incinerates the drugs in a way that is perfect for the environment AND legal. However, only some small independent pharmacies are getting into this program. Yesterday, I approached the independent here in Corvallis about this program, and was told that the Oregon board of Pharmacy didn’t allow them to take drugs back in any way. When I called the Oregon Board of Pharmacy compliance board, I was forwarded to rule 855-041-0080 part 2c, which allows this environment take-back program to be completely legal in Oregon, and that Pharmacist can take your drugs (non controlled) back if they are intentioned to destroy the drugs.

In short, it seems that this entire project will be simply educating people…even some pharmacists.

I don’t know where to go with this project, it seems extremely wide ranging and there are many problems with the current system (I haven’t even discussed the issues I have with the federal regulations on drug disposal).  My adviser  offered the idea that I start looking for grants to create some community based drug take-back program and, that I consider writing an undergraduate thesis on this subject…  I didn’t even know there were undergraduate thesis’. I’ve been put into contact with Rob Emanuel who seems to have started working of a similar project up in Tillamook and Clatsop county. And at this point I’m looking for anyone to give me some direction with the subject.

Anyways…that’s what I’ve been doing this week…If any ideas come to you please comment and give me some Ideas!

Have a GREAT 4th of July Weekent

Josh Scacco