wafflehead77
05-23-2008, 10:57 AM
I know there are a few here who work in the pharmaceutical industry, and I have a question for you. I myself worked at a large chain pharmacy for a few years, but I wanted some input from some different employees on the subject.
How did your pharmacy dispose of expired/discontinued meds, especially controlled substances? Where I worked, we would throw some of them out, but most of them, especially CII's and CIII's, were sent back to the manufacturer or distributer for disposal. I assumed this is what every place does, until yesterday.
I get a call from a friend, who had just scored, and was fixing behind a small pharmacy. All he said was "you need to get to my house now, I have something to show you". Being curious, I of course went. While he was fixing, he said an employee came out the back door, and threw a bag of trash into the dumpster. He was in his car, but the window was down, and he heard the distinct sound of pills rattling in a bottle. It was about an hour before sunset, so he decided to wait until dark, and then check it out.
He returned with a flashlight, and started searching the dumpster. Apparently there were hundreds of bottles of expired meds, most being worthless. However, towards the bottom of the bag, just as he was about to give up, he found an old bottle of 50mg meperidine (Demerol) tabs. This of course made him decide to keep looking, and in all, he found the following: 2 bottles of Roche Valiums (2mg), 1 still being sealed, 3 bottles of Stadol NS (junk, but still, pretty cool), about 35 mallie 15mg morphine ER's, testosterone patches, about a half-bottle of Xydol (10/300 hydro/apap), 21 Watson Oxycodone ER 40mg's, 13 Watson oxycodone ER 10mg's, and here is the moneyshot, a bottle of 58 Palladone 24mg, and a bottle of 29 Palladone 16mg!!!!
I would not have believed him 1) had I not seen it 2) had he not had the Palladone. Since hydromorphone ER has been off the market for 3-4 years, it is not possible that these were recently rx'd. Fucking Crazy.
The weird part: how the hell is it legal to throw CII's into a dumster? It is a small mom/pop type place with only a few locale's in the city, but still. They must not clean there expired's out very often, to have Palladone sitting around. So have any of the pharmacy employee's out there seen anything like this (Roxi?)
We would rarely through things like ibuprofen into the garbage, and I think even that was against company policy. How he happened to be there at the right time is beyond me, but I can guarantee he will be checking the place weekly! Bastard wouldnt even tell me which location it was, but I think I have a good idea:cool:
EDIT: I almost forgot the levorphanol. There was only nine of them, but I talked the dude into giving me a couple. I had always wanted to try them, just to see if they are any good. They are the 2mg, and they are not what I expected. They work well for pain, almost better than Roxi's, but the euphria was lacking. Kind of mild like 'done, but it lasted for only 4 hours (not bad though for an IR med).
I am still skeptical about the find. I want to believe it, but it is just too "good", you know. I could easily see this guy robbing a pharm, but how would you get Palladone? The other meds make sense as well. The Watson oxy's are discontinued, and with not enough to fill a script, I could see them not being used. Same with the Valiums, I mean who gets 2mg Valiums?! Stadol is rarely rx'd, so that is feasible, and even the 15mg morphine IR's and Xydol are not very common.
How did your pharmacy dispose of expired/discontinued meds, especially controlled substances? Where I worked, we would throw some of them out, but most of them, especially CII's and CIII's, were sent back to the manufacturer or distributer for disposal. I assumed this is what every place does, until yesterday.
I get a call from a friend, who had just scored, and was fixing behind a small pharmacy. All he said was "you need to get to my house now, I have something to show you". Being curious, I of course went. While he was fixing, he said an employee came out the back door, and threw a bag of trash into the dumpster. He was in his car, but the window was down, and he heard the distinct sound of pills rattling in a bottle. It was about an hour before sunset, so he decided to wait until dark, and then check it out.
He returned with a flashlight, and started searching the dumpster. Apparently there were hundreds of bottles of expired meds, most being worthless. However, towards the bottom of the bag, just as he was about to give up, he found an old bottle of 50mg meperidine (Demerol) tabs. This of course made him decide to keep looking, and in all, he found the following: 2 bottles of Roche Valiums (2mg), 1 still being sealed, 3 bottles of Stadol NS (junk, but still, pretty cool), about 35 mallie 15mg morphine ER's, testosterone patches, about a half-bottle of Xydol (10/300 hydro/apap), 21 Watson Oxycodone ER 40mg's, 13 Watson oxycodone ER 10mg's, and here is the moneyshot, a bottle of 58 Palladone 24mg, and a bottle of 29 Palladone 16mg!!!!
I would not have believed him 1) had I not seen it 2) had he not had the Palladone. Since hydromorphone ER has been off the market for 3-4 years, it is not possible that these were recently rx'd. Fucking Crazy.
The weird part: how the hell is it legal to throw CII's into a dumster? It is a small mom/pop type place with only a few locale's in the city, but still. They must not clean there expired's out very often, to have Palladone sitting around. So have any of the pharmacy employee's out there seen anything like this (Roxi?)
We would rarely through things like ibuprofen into the garbage, and I think even that was against company policy. How he happened to be there at the right time is beyond me, but I can guarantee he will be checking the place weekly! Bastard wouldnt even tell me which location it was, but I think I have a good idea:cool:
EDIT: I almost forgot the levorphanol. There was only nine of them, but I talked the dude into giving me a couple. I had always wanted to try them, just to see if they are any good. They are the 2mg, and they are not what I expected. They work well for pain, almost better than Roxi's, but the euphria was lacking. Kind of mild like 'done, but it lasted for only 4 hours (not bad though for an IR med).
I am still skeptical about the find. I want to believe it, but it is just too "good", you know. I could easily see this guy robbing a pharm, but how would you get Palladone? The other meds make sense as well. The Watson oxy's are discontinued, and with not enough to fill a script, I could see them not being used. Same with the Valiums, I mean who gets 2mg Valiums?! Stadol is rarely rx'd, so that is feasible, and even the 15mg morphine IR's and Xydol are not very common.