Trish Groe

What it will do: Allow for unexpired drugs to be donated to health care providers in their original sealed containers and redistributed at little or no cost to people with limited incomes.

A new law that mandates the creation of a prescription medication recycling program is being fine-tuned by legislators and representatives from the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy.
Signed by Governor Napolitano in April, H2382 (Chapter 136) will allow for unexpired drugs to be donated to health care providers in their original sealed containers and redistributed at little or no cost to people with limited incomes who sign waivers of consent.
“We just want to make sure that we have a very effective system and not just a feel-good piece of legislation,” said Rep. Trish Groe, R-3, the bill’s sponsor. “We’re working on the rules right now.”
Ms. Groe came up with the idea for the bill last winter while her grandfather battled terminal cancer.
His insurance had spent thousands of dollars on cutting-edge chemotherapy drugs. The medicine did not help him, and the family was frustrated that the unused portion could not be passed on to someone else.
Ms. Groe had read about recycling programs in other states and decided to bring the practice to Arizona.
State policy had previously dictated that returned drugs, opened or not, be flushed down toilets by doctors and pharmacists. Ms. Groe said flushed medicine creates water contamination – something she learned after talking with staff at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
When she introduced the bill in January, it received support from Republicans and Democrats alike, finally passing 28-2 in the Senate and unanimously in the House.
“It was an extremely fantastic bipartisan effort and one of the major pieces of legislation that I’m proud of,” Mrs. Groe said.
“I did it in my grandfather’s honor. I feel like a part of him is now living in history.”
— Daniel Raven, Arizona Capitol Times correspondent