Funny moment at the local police drug turn in today.

[Kingcreek]

Mom died last week. She had been in hospice and life wasn't much fun so it wasn't entirely sad. She had spent almost all her money on private 24 hour care for the past almost 2 years because she wanted to stay in her home. My sister started cleaning out moms house since she was in town for the funeral and trying to keep busy.
For some reason, sis poured all of moms left over meds into a big zip lock freezer bag and put the pill bottles in recycling. She also dumped some kin of laxitive powder in with the pills and a bottle of liquid morphine. Quite a lot of laxitive powder. She was going to drive back home to another state and burn it all in her burn barrel on thier farm. I told her the local police Dept had a drug take back program today where they collect unused prescriptions. I told her I could take them in since she was driving home yesterday and I would be in town today anyway. Probably not a good idea to be driving across state lines with all of that in a bag.
So I walked in carrying this big bag of loose pills and laxitive powder and when I was greeted by the chief and another officer I suddenly realized how much it looked just like a half kilo of some other fine white powder.
I got some pretty funny looks when I told him I THINK it's laxitive of some kind but I'm not sure because my sister dumped it in there.
I'm wondering if they broke out a test kit after I left.

[BobR]

Watch the news tonight. If they tested it they will have a positive test for opioids and the local po-po will tough the overwhelming success of the program and how they were able to take all of those evil drugs off the street. Then they will apply for more grants to do this again based on the success of the program. Your tax dollars at work. :)

Sorry about your mom, even if expected it is hard.


bob

[Kingcreek]

The liquid morphine was still in its sealed and labeled bottle, the only identifiable thing in the bag.

[Hawkmoon]

PD in the next town has a drug turn-in box in their lobby. I asked what they do with the stuff that gets turned in. It gets burned.

So now I just toss any old prescriptions in my household trash -- which I take to a transfer station, from where it's sent to a regional incinerator and burned.

[grampster]

^^^^No wonder all LEOs in your town have goofy smiles on their faces as they wander around town talking to themselves.

[Ben]

Condolences on your mom Kingcreek. I know how that goes. You don't want them to go, but when they're suffering, then you kinda do, but you don't. Kind of a sad blessing that their suffering is at an end.

[BlueStarLizzard]

PD in the next town has a drug turn-in box in their lobby. I asked what they do with the stuff that gets turned in. It gets burned.

So now I just toss any old prescriptions in my household trash -- which I take to a transfer station, from where it's sent to a regional incinerator and burned.

I always wondered why it's a thing to turn in old drugs rather than just toss them into the trash. Seriously, if someone is really desperate enough to dig through my rotting garbage in the hopes of finding something, they are welcome too it.

OTOH, I can't remember, but aren't there programs for turning in unwanted prescription drugs for donations? Seems a shame that perfectly good drugs couldn't be used by free clinics or whatnot.

[Firethorn]

I always wondered why it's a thing to turn in old drugs rather than just toss them into the trash. Seriously, if someone is really desperate enough to dig through my rotting garbage in the hopes of finding something, they are welcome too it.

OTOH, I can't remember, but aren't there programs for turning in unwanted prescription drugs for donations? Seems a shame that perfectly good drugs couldn't be used by free clinics or whatnot.

It's because the drugs can end up in the water supply.  Safer to burn them.

As for the later, not really, too much fear of contamination.  Drugs are generally quite cheap anyways when we don't allow companies to practice monopoly pricing.

[BobR]

Seriously, if someone is really desperate enough to dig through my rotting garbage in the hopes of finding something, they are welcome too it.

I have walked in on people (patients in the ER) that have taken the Sharps container off of the wall and dumped them out looking for drugs in used syringes. :(

Why do you think the Sharps containers are now locked in place or inside a cage?


bob

[Perd Hapley]

Just don't mix your coke with laxative powder. That sounds like an unholy mess.

[Kingcreek]

I think there might be some gubmint grant or incentive money since they always seem to make such a big deal about how many pounds of rx drugs are off the street and out of homes.
Mom was in hospice. There were lots of rx drugs and the hospice nurse brought a box of end-of-life comfort drugs for the fridge because IF you need them you don't want to wait for updated orders and delivery and such.
My ongoing rants about our American healthcare and the current delivery system is on hiatus for awhile. I am too tired and frustrated to go into the silly boundaries and barriers associated with hospice and Medicare and whatever else passes for care in this F'd up system.
She would have had to go to a nursing home even if she hadn't fractured her hip at home and died of complications related to palliative surgery and she did NOT want to leave her own home. We just didn't know she would take this way out.

[grampster]

Sorry for your loss of mom.  Been there done that for both my parents and my in laws and my closest aunt.  It's not easy being with them as they try to pass away.  My aunt told me a couple weeks before she died that she didn't realize how hard it was to die.  That nearly broke my heart.  My brother and I tried to do the best for her during this time, but one always lives with a bit of regret that you didn't do enough.  We moved her from where she lived to another place closer to us, but she only managed to stay there for a couple days before she went back into a hospice situation.  I've 2nd guessed that move for a long time as it was a bit disrupting for her.  The only thing that helps is that she said she really wanted to be in a new place with a nice view. 
I think one of the sad parts of losing all of the generation that begat you, is that you no longer have anyone to ask questions about family and other things of that nature anymore.

[Kingcreek]

Mom was 80 and in hospice for a few months. Hospice is much different than when dad was dying of pancreatic cancer 21 years ago. Mom was in that worst existence not living or dying. Just sitting waiting to die. She had 24hr private caregivers but she fell transferring from lift chair to wheelchair and the hip fractured.
Under hospice care they couldn't or wouldn't do anything for her. They said without surgery to pin it she would be in constant pain and unable to sit in chair or bed. She was mentally fit and decided to go out of hospice to go into active care under Medicare. She was a high risk surgical patient. Something went wrong and she crashed once during surgery, was stabilized and came out of anesthesia and knew where she was and what was happening but then crashed again before they got her to recovery.
The surgeon said it was definitely her heart, the cardiologist said the heart was fine she definitely threw blood clots probably to her lungs. Whatever. We didn't care about that. This was the best way for her. She was home except for last 3 days in hospital.
I would have liked to see the quantity of pills before my sister dumped all that laxitive powder into the bag. And there have been pharmacy robo calls on her answering machine every day reminding her that more drugs are ready to be picked up.

[Mannlicher]

I'd just as soon have as little face time with the police as possible.  When my Mom passed,  the left over prescription meds were just thrown out with the garbage.  The tiny amount did not have any effect on Mother Gaia.

[K Frame]

Sorry about your Mom, King. Yes, it's a mercy, but it still sucks.