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Have you got any spare drugs


Quillan
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If so can I have them [;-)]

Seriously I have discovered that if you do then you can take them to your local pharmacy who will give them Medicins sans Frontiers. It does not matter that the box is open and you have used some they will still take them. Also, if you have anything left over as a result of an operation like crutches, limb braces etc they will take them as well. I discovered this from my nurse as I have a leg brace which I had when my knee was done. I only used it 3 days and its as good as new yet it cost over 60 Euros and it seems stupid to throw it in the bin.

So there you go, look at it this way you are helping them yet its not costing you a penny.

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You'd have a heart attack is you saw the drugs and medical bit's and bobs we routinely throw away from offshore.

We have a sickbay which is probably better equipped than many 3rd world hospitals but of course the target is to never unlock the door and by and large, except for the odd sticking plasters, headache pills and lip salves, it's one we achieve, so drugs etc. sit on the shelf just waiting for their expiry date.

Unfortunately strict procedures preclude us from donating them to good causes so they all get put into a sealed medical waste bin and sent ashore for incineration. It's a lucrative immoral business and remember, we are but one of a hundred or more installations just in the North Sea.

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Quillan, do you know if this standard procedure in every pharmacy, and do they just donate 'automatically', as it were, or do you have to specifically ask for your drugs to go to this good cause?

I have always (in Uk as well as France) taken old medicines back to the pharmacy as I never liked the idea of just chucking them in the usual household waste.

But I definitely like the idea that they're helping someone else not just being incinerated.

Lou

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That sounds such a good idea, Quillan! I also usually return any unused drugs to the local pharmacy in UK, but they are disposed of. In UK have almost 2 weeksworth of a strong antibiotic which disagreed with me, which haven't yet been returned; I wonder if the local pharmacy in France would accept them.I'll pass on this useful idea to neighbours - thanks.
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Unfortunately the pharmacies have to destroy returned unwanted drugs - an EU directive in January 2009 ordered this, they can no longer be sent to charities.[:(]

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-01-25-voa6-68809877.html

Bernice

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An unconscionable directive undoubtedly owing more to commercial

pressures and interests than concern for the unfortunate recipients but

twas ever thus [:'(]

An expired medicine does not mean a bad medicine, especially when all you have to go on is a notional date determined by the very manufaturer who will have the profitable task of replacing it.

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None of you are considering the risks involved, how can you be sure those tightly sealed almost impenetrable foil and plastic packaging hasn't been damage in some way [;-)]

Glad the EU are once again not pandering to big business [6]

 

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Well I took some to the pharmacy today, we have 4 in our local town and I asked the guy there that I know. He said they did indeed send the drugs and other stuff on to Medicins sans Frontiers. I never asked him if every pharmacy did this but then the nurse didn't know which of the 4 pharmacies I would use and I don't always use the same one.

As to EU directive, Voice of America (is it?) and France all I can say is give me a link to the Directive in France and I will believe it (Sunday Driver your good at digging these things out, does it exist?). Not to forget of course what the EU says and what France does are two different things as we know from the past. I also would have thought it would show up in the French papers as well which it appears not to (so far). Don't want to put VOA down but I have seen things in English language papers before that have turned out to be not correct. I have also tried to Google about the EU and this subject and I can't find anything.

My tip, for what its worth, is to ask your local pharmacy and see what they say.

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I wonder if expired drugs have fallen foul of the general waste management directives which place strict requirements on the movement and traceability of all waste. Pretty hard to comply with once something leaves the confines of the EU.

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I think you are right because when I was trying to find out about this after the comments made there was quite a bit of new stuff about expired drugs which I take to mean as in date expired and their safe disposal. That rather than 'in date' part used box's of pills etc.

As fr the comment about tampering with the drugs, I would hope that they check the inner packaging for that at some stage, I'm sure they do which is why they won't take stuff in bottles (apparently).

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Sending drugs to MSF ended a couple of years ago.

La redistribution humanitaire des Médicaments Non Utilisés a été, par exemple, une exception française qui s'est arrêtée le 31/12/2008. En revanche, la protection de l'environnement et la sécurité sanitaire font consensus pour tous les pays.

From

http://www.cyclamed.org/index.php?page=dossier&dossier=5&PHPSESSID=86991ade02bee20963a44b6f4d47945b

 

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