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Emilie Renninger
RUNNING HEAD: House Bill 1047: Safe Medication Drop Sites 2
Summary
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
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
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
RUNNING HEAD: House Bill 1047: Safe Medication Drop Sites 3
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
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
its the state and taxpayers absorbing these costs. HB 1047 proposes that the take-back
RUNNING HEAD: House Bill 1047: Safe Medication Drop Sites 4
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
Resources
United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2016, June). The opioid
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).
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
Zero Waste Washington. (2017, February 22). Medicine return legislation in Washington
http://www.zerowastewashington.org/index.php/medicine-return-legislation-state
Volkow, N. D. (2014, May 14). Americas addiction to opioids: heroin and prescription
nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-
opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse
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