Is it a social conscience that should motivate us to dispose of medications safely?
There is always someone thinking something interesting somewhere in the world. Take just one story from California as an example. It raises the difficult question of how you should dispose of “pills” you no longer need or which have expired. Many offer a service to dispose of old and unwanted medications for you. Do you ever wonder what happens after casual disposal? Your local waste management authority comes round to collect the refuse which is then dumped. This pile then rots down as rain washes through it so, sooner or later, dissolved drugs end up in the watertable and potentially get recycled into your drinking water. The medications flushed go more directly into the water supply. Perhaps you have no interest in the people downstream of you. I wonder what the people upstream think of you. But, back to Ambien. Ambien is, of course, a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic. In fact, Ambien works in exactly the same way as a conventional benzodiazepine and is probably just as addictive. For this reason, Ambien is listed by the DEA. You will be pleased and delighted to know that the US Government has your interests at heart. It always wants to protect you and the environment, here “always” is non an exaggeration. If there is no-one else immediately available to handle the disposal, the controlled substances should be collected by a law enforcement officer. So, if your local pharmacy has not registered with the DEA, their only way of disposing of your unwanted drugs is to call the cops. Anyone can walk in and leave their unwanted medications, including Ambien but excluding all illegal substances and walk out - no questions asked. And is this a welcome service? Over the first fifteen months of the program, local citizens have deposited 1,800 pounds of medications, not all Ambien, of course. So there is clearly a demand for this kind of service. It is pure self-interest, of course. Who wants to get high from drinking tap water? And do we really want all those bacteria out there to get used to all those antibiotics in the water? If you don’t know the answers to these and other questions of social conscience or self-interest, take an Ambien and sleep on it.