Pouches available for Southern Nevada residents to dispose of prescription drugs

A national pharmaceutical company on Thursday donated 60,000 drug-deactivation pouches to help combat prescription opioid abuse in Southern Nevada through a new partnership with Roseman University of Health Sciences.

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals also will help the Henderson-based private university distribute the pouches to local families for free at health fairs and drug abuse education events, according to a news release.

The pouches, which can hold up to 45 pills, are designed to render prescription opioids safe for disposal by using carbon to deactivate the active ingredients. Users can then fill the pouch with water, seal it and safely throw it in the trash without fear of contaminating the environment or having someone consuming the discarded drugs, said state Sen. Patricia Farley, R-Las Vegas, who helped develop the partnership.

The pouches are just one way that state officials, educators and health care experts are attacking the high number of prescription drug-related deaths in the state.

Though state figures indicate that overall drug deaths have declined in Nevada in recent years — from 531 in 2011 to 382 in 2015 — some experts say it’s unclear if those numbers are accurate. And even if they are, they say, that is an unacceptably high number of drug deaths.

Mallinckrodt did not estimate the value of the donation, though the company says the pouches were purchased from Minneapolis-based Verde Technologies as part of Mallinckrodt’s effort to donate 1.5 million pouches nationally to curb abuse of excess prescription drugs.

“Prescription drugs are designed to heal, not harm. But today, prescription drug misuse, abuse and diversion is one of our nation’s and Nevada’s greatest health concerns,” Derek Naten, senior director of state government affairs and advocacy for Mallinckrodt, said in a statement. “Safe drug disposal is critically important in the fight to keep these unused drugs from falling into the wrong hands.”

Farley said the donation reinforces the message that leftover pills can be misused — a detail many people forget.

“There’s lots of accidents that happen with young children” and the elderly accidentally ingesting old prescription drugs, she said. There’s also a potential for abuse of leftover prescription drugs if an addicted friend or family member becomes aware that they are being discarded, she said.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @pashtana_u on Twitter.