A small plastic pouch, filled with a carbon substance that, when mixed with water, absorbs and destroys the active ingredients in medications, allowing the user to safely discard the unwanted products.
The pain from your sprained back or twisted ankle is long gone, but the bottle of pills your doctor prescribed is still half full.
Now what?
You can't leave them in your medicine cabinet: The highly addictive drugs are a lure for your teenage kid, and can be fatal to a young child who mistakes them for candy.
You can't flush them down the toilet or stuff them in the trash: Environmentalists warn of the contamination to soil and groundwater from discarded medications, with reports of pharmaceuticals in sewage and surface waters numbering in the thousands.
Several South Jersey counties are trying an innovative approach that may be the solution for the six out of 10 patients who statistics say have pills left over they no longer need.
It comes in the form of a small plastic pouch, filled with a carbon substance that, when mixed with water, absorbs and destroys the active ingredients in the pills, allowing the user to safely discard the unwanted products.
The initiative represents an agreement among Inspira Health Network and a coalition of local partners, including county health departments, NJSpotlight reports.
Since the campaign was introduced in December in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties, Inspira's facilities have distributed about 7,000 pouches, each able to neutralize 90 pills.
That's a lot of pills not ending up in landfills or feeding an incipient drug abuser's habit, especially now that a separate coalition in Atlantic City has purchased 2,500 of the kits for local use.
The kits, manufactured by the Deterra Drug Deactivation System, are available free in the participating counties. Individuals can also purchase them on line at from various retailers; they come in sizes capable of handling 15, 45 and 90 pills, with the medium-sized model selling at about $83 for a ten-pack.
Other communities in the state are taking a different tack.
In Somerset County, the sheriff's office offers drop boxes and "take-back" events - drive-throughs and collection drives at senior centers - which last year collected 2,725 pounds of prescription medications.
In Hunterdon County, a lockable metal box is open seven days a week, 365 days a year for drop-offs at the Readington Police Department.
In Mercer County, law-enforcement agencies participate in the national Prescription Drug Take-Back days held every spring and fall in conjunction with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. East Windsor, Hamilton, Princeton and Robbinsville are among the dozen or so municipalities that take part.
Every day, 2,500 new kids begin abusing opioids, according to Deterra. With doctors writing hundreds of millions of opiate prescriptions in the United States every year, the challenge of safe disposal is only going to intensify.
Efforts like the Inspira program and police-sponsored take-back days are welcome, and deserve all the support they can get.
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