This week the Iowa Pharmacy Association (IPA) wrote their weekly newsletter. One of the topics they discussed was the new DEA regulations that involve the current TakeAway program. TakeAway is a service free to everyone that allows people to get rid of their unused or expired medications in a responsible way. People can bring any non-controlled medications to a participating pharmacy and have them disposed of for free.
The DEA's new guidelines propose to allow controlled substances to be taken away as well. However, they wish to limit the entire program to law-enforcement agencies only, meaning community pharmacies would no longer be able to participate. According to the IPA newsletter, there are over 440 participating pharmacies across the state of Iowa. The DEA's concern is that pharmacies are not capable of protecting the take-away medications, especially controlled substances, in the meantime before they are sent to their final disposal site. The new regulations would still allow pharmacies to partner with local law-enforcement agencies to host TakeAway events, but would not be able to advertise their pharmacy as a collection site. IPA wrote back to this proposal and stated that, "...the proposed regulations create additional burdens on local law
enforcement agencies, when community-based pharmacies could play a greater role in
controlled substance collection events."
The other key regulation IPA had concerns over was the receptacle the DEA has chosen as the only way to store TakeAway medications. As it currently stands, the receptacles are sealable boxes with a non-removable inner liner. When these containers are full, they are sealed and then shipped back to Sharps Compliance, Inc. for incineration. The DEA now wants only containers with a removable inner liner that would allow for their collection. They propose to have the inner liner removed from the receptacle and collected for disposal under the witness of 2 other authorized employees. The inner liner should then be destroyed promptly or stored at the collector's site until it can be disposed in accordance to current regulations. The DEA also wants the outer liner to be securely fastened to a permanent structure so that is cannot be moved. IPA is suggesting that the guidelines would also allow for " the container to be pad-locked to a secure structure" so that pharmacies wouldn't have to completely install a kiosk or station to allow for the new receptacle.
The DEA will now have time to review all suggestions and comments and make changes if they wish.
