Trying To Do The Right Thing

In my continuing effort to clean things out in the house we have lived in for twenty-two years I came upon a few prescription pain killers that we had not taken during various bone breaks, back aches and post surgery spells. A friend had recently told me of her sadness for having to let go a house keeper go because she discovered she had been steeling pain killers from their medicine cabinet.
I don’t think we had any oxy, but there were plenty of codons of various types. I knew that I should not throw the pills in the trash because it is bad if the drugs get into the water supply. So I took the prescriptions in their original bottles back to the pharmacy they came from.
Much to my surprise the pharmacist told me that it is against the rules for them to take old drugs back. I asked her what I should do with them and she told me that the police have drug take in events once in a while. That answer was not satisfactory to me and I asked her if that was my only option. That was when she told me I could put the pills in coffee grounds or kitty litter with some water in a sealed bag and throw them away.
Since we use coffee capsules and don’t have a cat I was a little frustrated with my options. I stopped in to Starbucks and asked them for some old grounds and they gladly gave them to me. I did as I was told, but still felt that it was not the best solution.
Considering the country wide epidemic of painkiller addiction I think we need a better way to dispose of old pills. The idea of keeping them around waiting for a police take back event seems dangerous and irresponsible. Perhaps the laws should be changed that prevent pharmacists from being allowed to take them in. Seems like those who are trained to dispense them are the best qualified to handle doing away with them.