By Miranda Williams, PharmD, RPh, Director of BWC’s Pharmacy Program
In our latest step to mitigate the opioid epidemic on Ohio’s workforce, we will provide injured workers with drug disposal bags that destroy leftover opioids.
Governor Mike DeWine, BWC Administrator/CEO Stephanie McCloud and RecoveryOhio Director Alisha Nelson announced this new statewide effort Thursday, Oct. 17, in Columbus at a local pharmacy.
You may view the announcement on BWC’s Facebook page. In addition, many media outlets attended the event. Here are some of the stories: Click here for WSYX-TV, ABC 6, in Columbus and here for the Statehouse News Bureau story.
Starting Nov. 1, retail pharmacies will automatically issue the disposal bags to Ohio injured workers receiving an opioid prescription for the first time within the last 12 months.
The bags destroy opioid pills, liquids, and patches in a chemical process rendering them useless.
Unused medications
“Newly injured workers don’t always need every opioid pill in their prescription, and this new effort will simplify the process for safely disposing of these dangerous drugs,” said Governor DeWine, who praised BWC for the initiative. “By giving these drug disposal bags to injured workers at the time they fill a prescription, we can not only educate them about the dangers of opioid addiction, but also reduce the risk that unused pills will end up where they shouldn’t – in the hands of children, for example.”
We’re covering the cost of every disposal bag, so there is no cost to the pharmacy, the injured worker, and the employer. “The bag is extremely simple to use and it’s completely biodegradable,” noted Administrator McCloud.
The bags destroy the drugs in a simple process, as Administrator McCloud and Governor DeWine demonstrated during the news conference:
- Toss any unused medication into the bag.
- Fill it with warm water and wait 30 seconds.
- Seal it and shake it. Throw the bag out.
“Along with the Governor’s RecoveryOhio initiative, we want to safeguard our community’s medicine cabinets from becoming gateways to youth and adult drug experimentation,” said Administrator McCloud.
Gov. DeWine and Administrator/CEO Stephanie McCloud demonstrate how to use the drug disposal bag.
Here’s a sobering statistic from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Nearly one-third of people ages 12 and over who used drugs for the first time began by using a prescription drug for non-medical purposes.
The disposal bags are one more tool in BWC’s comprehensive program to mitigate the opioid epidemic’s impact on Ohio’s workforce. Earlier this year, we dropped Oxycontin from our formulary and replaced it with opioids that have stronger abuse-deterrent technology.
We estimate up to 175 injured workers a month will be eligible for a drug disposal bag. That’s not a huge number — we covered 164,761 opioid prescriptions in calendar year 2018 — but if it saves one life, it’s worth doing. As Governor DeWine has often said, the opioid and substance-use epidemic is a complicated public health issue. There is no easy solution, and it requires all of us, from state leaders to you and our next-door neighbors, to fight this battle.
In addition, we are a leader in our industry. Other state agencies and workers’ comp systems across America look to us for guidance on a host of issues, from building strong pharmacy and safety programs to fighting fraud. Let’s hope they follow our lead on this effort, too.
For more information about drug disposal bags, email or call BWC’s Pharmacy Department at 877-543-6446, 8 a.m. – 4:45 p.m., EST, Monday – Friday.
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