Pharma loses, safety wins

Of all the things that can happen to old prescription medicines, most are not good for public health. They can be subject to experimentation or abuse by young adults or ingested by young children. They can end up in landfills or flushed down the toilet and end up in the water supply. Alameda County took a big risk on behalf of public health and safety when it passed the nation’s first measure to require drug manufacturers to cover the cost of disposing of patients’ unused medicines. The effort was validated this week when the U. S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from the pharmaceutical industry, which argued that the law interfered with the free flow of goods guaranteed by the Constitution’s commerce clause. In essence, the industry warned that the appeals court ruling against them set a precedent that would force interstate manufacturers to collect unwanted products “at the whim of local governments.” But that argument was a huge stretch considering the very particular concerns about the fate of surplus medications. The precedent already had been established for requiring manufacturers of other products with health or environmental impact — needles, batteries, paint, mattresses — to make drop- off recycling available to consumers. It must be noted that Alameda County in July 2012 took the issue seriously enough to bear the cost and operation of 30 pill drop- off sites. The high court ruling now clears the way for other jurisdictions across the country to pass similar laws on medicine disposal. San Francisco’s measure has been on hold pending the high court ruling, and San Mateo is about to initiate a similar program. The Alameda County program is expected to add about a penny to each $ 10 in drug sales. It’s a reasonable price to pay for a worthwhile advancement in public health and safety.