This startling statistic is especially disturbing considering that 92 percent of the overdoses involved the misuse of legal, prescription drugs. It is tragic that medications that are a blessing for those dealing with illness or pain can become poison when they fall into the wrong hands.
Law enforcement officials throughout the nation, including Maine's Commissioner of Public Safety Anne Jordan, say that investigations of overdoses show that a significant source of the drugs is unused prescriptions that collect in medicine cabinets. Too often, other family members or friends may abuse these prescription drugs in the mistaken belief that they are safer than street drugs.
After marijuana, prescription drugs are the second most common form of illicit drug abuse among our nation's teens. Nearly 20 percent of Maine's high school seniors say they have abused prescription drugs, frequently taken from the home of a parent or grandparent.
The problem goes beyond experimentation. Commissioner Jordan says that drugs in medicine cabinets also lead to home invasions and burglaries. There even have been cases in which thieves break into a home while the family is attending the funeral of the loved one who was taking the medication. In addition, young children often are attracted to the colorful pills they discover in medicine cabinets.
Unused prescription drugs collecting in our homes are accidents and addictions waiting to happen.
It is estimated that 40 percent of prescription drugs - particularly pain-killers, antibiotics, and cardiovascular medicine - that are prescribed outside of hospitals go unused every year. Left in the home, they present a serious health and safety hazard. Flushed down the drain, they contaminate our waters and harm wildlife.
Fortunately, we are moving toward a safe and responsible method of disposing of unused prescriptions. Maine is leading the way.
In 2007, a statewide pilot program was established using a mail-back system. Consumers can pick up special envelopes or small boxes at participating pharmacies, doctors' offices and post offices. They are pre-addressed to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA). Unused drugs are mailed to MDEA, protected by the security of the U.S. Postal Service, and then incinerated at the same high-temperature facility MDEA uses to destroy illicit drugs.
This system addresses another important issue. Before the drugs are destroyed, they are inventoried so it can be determined exactly what drugs are being prescribed and purchased, but are going to waste. This information can lead to better prescribing practices, improved patient education, and lower health-care costs.
Since it was established, the program has prevented more than a ton of unused, unneeded or expired drugs from falling into the hands of children or criminals. I examined this issue at a hearing in June, as a member of the Senate Aging Committee, and recommended that Maine's program should be used as a national model.
I am delighted that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in partnership with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and state and local law-enforcement agencies, recently sponsored the first-ever national drug take-back day. More than 3,400 collection sites, including more than 100 in Maine, were established throughout the country, mostly at police stations. The federal government assumed all of the costs associated with disposing of the unused drugs; the only local costs were for the police officers stationed at each site.
As the results of this national effort are tabulated, I am confident that they will show that Americans are more than willing to make the effort to protect their children, their homes, and our environment from the abuse and improper handling of unused prescription drugs.
This problem, however, cannot be fully solved through the occasional special event of take-back days. Given the enormous quantity of drugs prescribed in our country and the tragic consequences of their abuse that occur every day, we require an on-going, regular disposal method modeled after Maine's pilot program.
That is why I am a co-sponsor of the bipartisan "Responsible Drug Disposal Act." This important legislation removes a major impediment to the mail-back system - current federal law, the Controlled Substances Act, does not permit a patient to deliver a prescription medication to another person or entity for disposal unless a law-enforcement officer is present to take custody of the drug. On a daily basis, this would consume virtually all of our law-enforcement resources. The Responsible Drug Disposal Act directs the U.S. Attorney General to set clear guidelines so that unused prescriptions can be disposed of frequently and safely, before they can cause harm.
In 1997, in Maine, the number of accidental deaths from drugs was 19, almost one-tenth of last year's toll. Maine, like most states, has been hit hard by the abuse of prescription drugs, but we are leading the way in fighting back.