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RUNNING HEAD: House Bill 1047: Safe Medication Drop Sites 1

House Bill 1047: Safe Medication Drop Sites

Western Washington University

Emilie Renninger
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Summary

Almost everyone either personally knows, or knows of someone affected by drug

abuse. Currently the nation is facing a crisis regarding opiate pain medication abuse and

misuse. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that the United States is the world

leader in highest amounts of opiate prescriptions, and estimates that over two million U.S

citizens have an opiate addiction (Volkow, 2014). A large factor in this issue is the lack

of safe medication-disposal sites for patients to get rid of unused drugs. Supporting

House bill 1040 can assist the state in moving forward with this crisis.

Background

Pain is a subjective phenomenon, and physicians are in difficult positions

regarding the amount of pills in a prescription. One patient might have a lower pain

tolerance than another patient, resulting in them both not needing the same amount of

medication. A randomized controlled trial study in 2016 found that out of 72 wisdom

teeth extraction patients who got their prescriptions filled, the average amount of pills left

over per patient equated to be 15, which is over half of the beginning amount (Maughan

et al., 2016). This means that large amounts of medicine are going unused, and can end

up being misused.

In 2016 the CDC noted that the majority of people who abuse opiates get them

from family or friends (CDC, 2016). To personally back this up, in high school I knew of

two different people in my graduating class who traded their leftover oxycodone from

wisdom teeth surgery for marijuana.

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services states that as of June 2016,

around 600,000 opiate prescriptions were handed out daily, and almost four thousand
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people began using opiates for non-medical issues per day (U.S Department of Health

and Human Services, 2016). That equates to roughly over a million people per year who

recreationally abused opiates. Unfortunately, it is nave to think that all one million of

these individuals only abused opiates one time and then quit. Drug abuse is a slippery

slope, and abusing one drug may open doors to abusing others. In fact, between 2008 and

2009, a study was completed involving participants from New York City and Los

Angeles. The study found a common correlation between opiate abuse and heroin use,

supporting the idea that prescription opiates can be a gateway drug (Lankenau et al.,

2012).

The passing of one bill wont solve the current opioid crisis, but progress can be

made. House Bill 1047 wants to create more safe drop sites in addition to the ones

already in place, and spread them to more rural areas (Zero Waste Washington, 2017).

The drop sites are abundant on the west side of Washington, and are more prevalent in

larger cities, but are not as common in rural areas. The goal of the bill is to make these

sites more readily available to all Washington State citizens through potential drop sites at

pharmacies and hospitals.

Recommendations

By reducing the amount of opiate pain medication on the streets, it is valid to infer

that by association, Heroin usage (and other IV drug use) could decrease as well. This in

turn would lift pressure off of local police and emergency departments by decreasing the

amount of drug-related crimes and medical emergencies. The cost of one uninsured

individual to be hospitalized in the ICU for a drug overdose is astronomical. Ultimately

its the state and taxpayers absorbing these costs. HB 1047 proposes that the take-back
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program be funded not by the state or taxpayers, but by pharmaceutical companies

putting 0.1% of all of medication sales towards the drop sites (Zero Waste Washington,

2017). Since the funding would be coming from Big Pharma, the state has nothing to

lose. As a nurse, it is my professional recommendation to support HB 1047.


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Resources

United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2016, June). The opioid

epidemic: by the numbers. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-061516.pdf

United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Injury prevention & control:

opioid overdose. (2016, December 20). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html

Lankenau, S. E., Teti, M., Silva, K., Bloom, J. J., Harocopos, A., & Treese, M. (2012).

Initiation into prescription opioid misuse amongst young injection drug

users.International Journal of Drug Policy,23(1), 37-44.

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2011.05.014

Maughan, B. C., Hersh, E. V., Shofer, F. S., Wanner, K. J., Archer, E., Carrasco, L. R., &

Rhodes, K. V. (nov. 2016). Unused opioid analgesics and drug disposal following

outpatient dental surgery: A randomized controlled trial. Drug and Alcohol

Dependence,168, 328-334. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.016

Zero Waste Washington. (2017, February 22). Medicine return legislation in Washington

State. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

http://www.zerowastewashington.org/index.php/medicine-return-legislation-state

Volkow, N. D. (2014, May 14). Americas addiction to opioids: heroin and prescription

drug abuse. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-

nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-

opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse
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