A pilot program for disposing of unwanted prescription medications has become a permanent fixture in San Juan County.

“Everyone has stepped up – across the board,” Ray’s Pharmacy owner Rick Hughes said. “This is good policy without politics.”

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition launched a prescription drug take-back program, beginning in August, at Ray’s Pharmacy on Orcas, Friday Harbor Drug and Lopez Pharmacy.

The program was so successful that collaborators – local pharmacies, sheriff’s office, and island prevention coalitions – have decided to make it permanent. It is made possible by a federal grant from the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition.

“We have hundreds of pounds of pharmaceuticals that have been turned back so far, so the problem was acute I think for many people who had these prescriptions and didn’t know what to do with them,” outgoing Sheriff Bill Cumming said.

Norm Degraaff, pharmacy manager at Friday Harbor Drug, says the trial program resulted in more drug disposal than he expected. Hormones and antibiotics were the two most common medications they saw.

“There was always a good size bag of drugs,” he said. “It was amazing how many drugs were sitting around. We’re probably just touching the tip of the iceberg.”

Degraaff is pleased that the program is becoming permanent.

“I think it will be good for the environment, that’s for sure – it will keep it from going into our water,” he said. “Nationwide there has been a really good response too.”

For the past five months, medications could be dropped off only on the first Wednesday of the month. Within the next few weeks, there will be disposal boxes at the Orcas, Lopez, and Friday Harbor pharmacies and sheriff stations.

“We’re locating in all pharmacies a secure locked bin that people can drop off their unused pharmaceuticals, and we will periodically pick them up,” Cumming said. Pharmacists can’t legally touch the drugs once they’re returned, so sheriff’s deputies will periodically empty the boxes.

The contents will be destroyed in special high temperature waste incinerators. If burned a lower temperatures, the medications emit harmful gases. Milwaukee-based Capital Returns has been generating electricity through prescription waste incineration since about 2007. While San Juan County doesn’t have its own approved incinerator, Cumming said he will be working with other counties that do.

The problem with old prescriptions is two-fold: if flushed or washed down the drain, they pollute the environment; if left in the medicine cabinet, they can fall into the wrong hands. Teen use of prescription drugs is a rising trend across the U.S. Prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused category of drugs, second only to marijuana, according to www.prescription-drug-abuse.org.

Cumming hopes the program will make prescription drug abuse a little more difficult.

“Studies show unauthorized use of pharmaceuticals are very common among drug users who steal them from homes, friends, family and neighbors; this stops their access,” he said.