College of Pharmacy facilitates Medication Cleanout

April 29, 2016 | Pharmacy |

The College of Pharmacy facilitated a drive-thru Medication Cleanout event April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Henry and Grace Farrar Center for Health Sciences.

“By dropping off your unused and expired medications at the Medication Cleanout program, you are working to prevent abuse, misuse and poisonings while also protecting the local water supply and landfill from potentially dangerous substances,” said Dr. Kaci Bohn, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

Participants did not have to leave their car to drop off medications or answer questions. Instead, College of Pharmacy students collected all medications from cars that approach.

Unlike a typical drug take back program that collects prescriptions and immediately incinerates them, the Harding College of Pharmacy aims to proactively find a solution to the surplus of medication. To accomplish this, the college gathers and studies additional information such as manufacturer, dosage details, and type of pharmacy used. After collection, medications were immediately transported into the locked building where the data gathering process began. All patient information was removed from the bottle. Items were sorted, counted and logged into a pharmaceutical collection database.

After the items are logged, the medications were taken into the possession of local law enforcement to be destroyed in a manner that protects the local water supply and environment.

The first Medication Cleanout event occurred in Amarillo, Texas, Sept. 12, 2009. Since that time, there have been 40 Medication Cleanout events with more than 24,000 pounds of medication collected.