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posted by martyb on Friday January 19 2018, @05:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-away-from-prank-loving-children dept.

Walmart offers way to turn leftover opioids into useless gel

Walmart is helping customers get rid of leftover opioids by giving them packets that turn the addictive painkillers into a useless gel. The retail giant announced Wednesday that it will provide the packets free with opioid prescriptions filled at its 4,700 U.S. pharmacies.

The small packets, made by DisposeRX, contain a powder that is poured into prescription bottles. When mixed with warm water, the powder turns the pills into a biodegradable gel that can be thrown in the trash. It works on other prescription drugs and for pills, tablets, capsules, liquids or patches, according to DisposeRx.

[...] Some drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens also collect unused medications at many of their stores. People can also take leftovers to hospital pharmacies or police stations. Unused prescriptions also can be thrown in the trash. But the Food and Drug Administration recommends mixing them first with something unpalatable like kitty litter or used coffee grounds and sealing the mixture in a plastic bag.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by beckett on Friday January 19 2018, @06:29AM (2 children)

    by beckett (1115) on Friday January 19 2018, @06:29AM (#624595)

    Opioids are detectable in trace amounts in public drinking water supplies [nih.gov]; what does Dispose RX do exactly? The first step in disposal would be to render unusable drugs harmless; however, if it doesn't also render them inert, these flushed/landfilled pharms will continue to hang around and create unintended consequences [discovermagazine.com].

      IMO address the root causes [esquire.com] in addition to just managing waste.

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  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday January 19 2018, @07:34AM (1 child)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Friday January 19 2018, @07:34AM (#624609) Journal

    Exactly what I was thinking, and if "[i]t works on other prescription drugs" -- then it is probably just making the drugs into a gooey mess, not neutralizing them, because neutralizing the medicine would require pretty specific chemical reactions.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday January 19 2018, @08:43AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 19 2018, @08:43AM (#624621) Journal

      Not necessarily. A decent oxidising agent will render most of the compounds inactive. Something like sodium percarbonate [wikipedia.org], an adduct of soda and hydrogen peroxide.

      I actually wonder if that DisposeRx is not actually carpet cleaner (most of which is sodium percarbonate) sold at a premium price.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford