Prozac Nation?

When helping to organize a client's house, we often come across old medicines. What to do with them? The old answer used to be to flush them down the toilet or simply put them in the trash.

Please don't do either of these things!

These chemicals are finding their way into our water sources and then of course into our bodies. Municipal filtration systems do not keep them out. The result, of course is that we all have traces of drugs (ones not prescribed for us) in our systems. This means that even nursing mothers are passing this stuff onto their precious babies. It certainly gives a new meaning to the phrase "Prozac Nation!" Let's keep our children and ourselves safe and dispose of old medications properly.

In my neck of the woods, local pharmacies are participating in a pilot program collecting old pills. I've listed these in this blog, but if you don't live in Sonoma County, California, please contact your local Waste Management agency or your local pharmacy and ask about what's available for you. If there is nothing---please start bugging your local government to start doing something!

(Be sure to remove labels before you recycle the bottles. This will help protect your identity and medical information.)

Santa Rosa:
Creekside Rx
Dollar Drug
Longs-4th St., Mendocino and Stony Point
The Medicine Shoppe
Rite-Aid-Farmers Lane
Tuttle's Hoen and Doyle Park Rx's
Walgreen's --All Santa Rosa Stores

Sebastopol:
Safeway
Longs

Rohnert Park:
Longs on Commerce
Costco

Cotati:
Walgreens-Old Redwood Highway

Program guidelines:

1. No lotions or creams.
2. Some pharmacies recycle the bottles with labels removed. Others ask you to take them home and recycle them.
3. This is a pilot program running from February thru July.

You can also take meds to the Sonoma County Waste Management Facility. The Household Toxics Facility is open every week for free drop-off of toxics from Sonoma County residents.

Call 543-4200 or visit www.srcity.org/safemed for more info.