FORT FRANCES—Do you have old bottles of pills and capsules that you never used up just sitting on a shelf in your house?
Well, now is the time to toss them out!
The Fort Frances Seniors’ Coalition, in partnership with the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team and Northwestern Health Unit, is holding its second-annual “Medicine Cabinet Cleanout Contest” throughout March.
And district residents are being encouraged to participate for a chance to win.
Suzanne Danku, a public health educator with the health unit and a seniors’ coalition member, said last year’s contest saw 106 pounds of medication collected.
She’s hoping to be just as successful this time around.
“It’s spring now; the weather is getting better and it’s time to clean out your house, start cleaning out your cabinets, and maybe win a prize,” she noted.
“We’re really encouraging adults to go to a parent’s house, or grandparent’s house, and help them clean out. That seems to be where a lot of the older stuff is kept,” added Danku.
“It’s a good time to do it, and a safe way to dispose of it.”
Here’s how the contest works: Just take all the medications you have cleaned out of your medicine cabinet back to your local pharmacy for safe and free disposal prior to March 31.
Participating pharmacies include the Fort Frances Clinic Dispensary, Pharmasave Downtown, the Canada Safeway pharmacy, Shoppers Drug Mart, the Wal-Mart pharmacy, Emo Drugs, and Rainy River Drugs.
When you drop off your drugs at one of these locations, you’ll be entered a draw to win a prize. Prizes will be given out at each participating location.
“The pharmacies are all on board. They’ve been wonderful again this year to come back on,” enthused Danku.
She noted a single prize also will be awarded to the person who drops off the oldest medication overall. Last year’s oldest medication dated back to 1965.
To qualify for the contest, the medications can be prescription medications that are expired or you no longer need to take, as well as old or expired non-prescription medications, including cough/cold medicine, pain relief drugs, first-aid substances, vitamins, and herbal products.
Canada Safeway pharmacist David Schwartz said the annual contest is “an excellent thing to do.”
“It reminds people that old medications do degrade over time, and it’s always a good idea to check your cupboard,” he remarked.
“I know lots of times you might go looking for something in your cupboard on a Sunday evening for yourself or one of your children, you look at the bottle and lo and behold, it’s a year overdue and then you’re scrambling for it.
“Not only that, but some people might grab something [and] won’t even bother looking at the date until a week later when they realize the medication expired a year ago,” added Schwartz.
“It’s always a good idea to check the dates on all your medications. That includes vitamins, herbals, prescription medication, everything,” he stressed.
Schwartz also noted that if you ever find medication in your home and you’re not sure whether it’s OK to take, contact your pharmacist for their advice.
“We also like to make people aware that, quite often, once a medication, especially prescription medication, has been completed or perhaps you don’t need it anymore, it’s maybe a good idea if you don’t save it for next time because it may not be appropriate,” he warned.
“A good example is antibiotics. You’re supposed to finish the whole thing, but some people don’t, and they think they’ll just save the rest for next time. But you can actually end up making the problem worse in the end.
“Two half-courses of antibiotics may not do it, and you’ll end with a nastier infection that requires even stronger antibiotics and that’s something we’d like to avoid.”
Schwartz said while the contest may only run for this month, all area pharmacies will accept old medication people bring in year-round. The medication is put into a special container, which is picked up and disposed of by an environmental company.
“They dispose of it properly. It doesn’t get back into the water system or into the garbage, which eventually gets back into the water system, as well,” Schwartz noted.
“That’s becoming a real issue,” he added. “They’re finding levels of prescription drugs in the water—it’s actually measurable.
“Water treatment plants do not filter this stuff out. They put chlorine in and they kill the bacteria, but they don’t regularly test to see how many prescription medication molecules are in the water when they send it through the pipes.
“They just don’t have the technology there.
“We want to keep this out of the water system as much as we can,” he stressed.
Schwartz said proper medication disposal also helps prevent theft of prescription drugs, such as oxycontin, which then may be abused by those for whom it is not meant.
“If people know you’ve cleaned it out, there’s no point in breaking on your house to get it,” he reasoned.
For more information on the contest or the seniors’ coalition, call Danku at 274-9827.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
