Donating unused drugs.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

With many life-saving drugs selling for a premium, a majority of states now allow prescription drugs to be collected and given away to the uninsured and poor. Called "recycling" or "repository" drug programs, the rules vary, but 36 states allow such recycling to help with soaring medical costs. Guam does, too. And 18 legislatures considered the issue in 2007-2008.

Some states allow donations of sealed medicines from individuals, but most accept drugs only from medical facilities such as doctors' offices or nursing homes, where millions of dollars of sealed drugs may be flushed down a drain. All state laws include some restrictions designed to ensure purity, safety and freshness of the drugs.

Donations are usually screened by pharmacists who check for safety, then are distributed by hospitals, pharmacies or charitable clinics. Many kinds of drugs are recycled, including antibiotics, antipsychotics, cancer treatments, blood thinners and antidepressants, although controlled and addictive drugs generally are excluded.

It is still too early to know the overall impact these programs will have on offsetting the costs of caring for the uninsured in emergency rooms and clinics. But hopes are high. For example, between March and December 2007, Iowa's drug recycling program collected 319,000 dosage units worth an estimated $292,000, according to the Associated Press. The main obstacles: lack of awareness about the programs and added work for repository sites...