Impact of drugs, from ads to trash

Now, a couple of words about over-the-counter and prescription drugs: advertising and disposal.

One has a multibillion-dollar impact on our economy, plus far-reaching effects on our physical and emotional well-being. The other has the potential to unlock what we may believe to be our best-guarded secrets and feed the habits of abusers.

Proper disposal of outdated prescription and OTC drugs is everyone’s responsibility. Start with the container. Trash-picking thieves can learn a lot about you by reading labels from your prescriptions, so don’t make it easy for them.

Blacken revealing data with a permanent marker or tear the label into tiny pieces before throwing the pill bottle in the trash. Mix the unused medications with old coffee grounds or other garbage, to minimize the risk of pilferage.

Those were among the tips from a recent forum sponsored by the Penobscot County TRIAD Coalition, a collaborative effort by several senior citizens groups and law enforcement organizations. Officers collected unwanted or outdated drugs in a container, which the seniors attending filled quickly.

TRIAD also has disposal sites around Penobscot County where people can take unneeded medicines for proper disposal.

Speakers at the forum had other bits of advice for seniors about their medications. When visiting the pharmacy, carry your purchase in a nondescript bag, or put them in your pocket. That “familiar white bag” is an invitation to thieves who may be watching the store. Drug abusers are not above strong-arming customers on the sidewalk, so secure your medicines as best you can, out of sight if possible.

Take that vigilant attitude home, and find a place to store those medicines that’s both secure and not obvious. Thieves look in the medicine cabinet first, and probably in kitchen cabinets and drawers second. If you make it difficult for prowlers to find drugs, they may move on empty-handed for fear of being caught.

Safe storage and disposal of drugs benefits younger consumers, too. Keeping medicines out of children’s hands is a must, especially since adult dosages of virtually any drug could be harmful to smaller, less well-developed systems.

This last point brings us to our other topic, advertising. There’s no ban on advertising children’s medications, but there’s little in the way of clinical testing for younger patients. The bottom line is that many medicines are given “off label”; while they’re prescribed legally, they were not intended for consumption by children.

Advertising to adults is megabusiness since the practice became widespread. It’s the lifeblood of the pharmaceutical companies; a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in 2006 showed a return of $2.20 in sales for every dollar spent on ads.

Are the ads persuasive? Prevention magazine conducted a survey in 1999 showing that 54.8 million Americans had “talked to their physician” about a drug they had seen advertised. More and more of those drugs are used to treat chronic conditions.

That means bigger profits, according to researcher Donald L. Sullivan of Ohio Northern University. He says the longer the list of troubling side effects an ad cautions, the more a person is likely to ask about that drug.

We’ve found some good advice at worstpills.org from the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. See also ConsumerReportsHealth.org for Consumers Union’s take.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast CONTACT, Maine’s membership-funded, nonprofit consumer organization. Individual and business memberships are available at modest rates. For assistance with consumer-related issues, including consumer fraud and identity theft, or for more information, write: Consumer Forum, P.O. Box 486, Brewer 04412, or e-mail contacexdir@live.com.