According to the FDA, you can safely dispose of medicines from home. You can use the United State Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)-authorized collectors or the medicine take-back programs to safely dispose of all medicines. In the absence of all these options, the FDA supports the safe disposal of unneeded opioid drugs in their household trash.

Medication Collectors

DEA-authorized collectors will come around and securely and safely collect and dispose of opioids, pharmaceutical controlled substances, and several other prescription drugs. There are different places you can find these people in your community – they can be present in the hospitals, clinic pharmacies, retail pharmacies, or law enforcement locations. You may also collect mail-back envelopes from these pharmacies; you can safely dispose of the unused opioid medicines and send it to them through the U.S. Mail.

Home Medication Disposal

If mail back or take-back program is not available in your area, you can safely dispose of your expired or unused opioid drugs in your household trash. To do this, mix the medicines with an unpalatable substance like used coffee grounds, dirt, or kitty litter. Please, do not crush capsules or tablets when mixing them. Now, put the mixture in a container like a sealable or zip-top plastic bag and throw the container with the content in your household trash. However, before you throw out empty medicine packaging or empty pill bottle, make sure you scratch out all personal information and the usage prescription written on the prescription label to make it unreadable.

However, some prescription medicines come with controlled substances that can only be used by the patient and can be harmful to any other person other than the patient. In this case, it may be hard to throw such opioid drugs in the trash because any kid or pet can accidentally take it from there. In the absence of the drug take-back program or DEA-authorized collector, FDA recommends that you flush these drugs in your toilet.

Contact the Adair County Health Department  for free DisposeRX packets for easy at home disposal!