Guilford Mom Applauds Walmart's New Plan to Destroy Unused Pills

GUILFORD, CT - A Guilford mom who has become one of Connecticut's leading advocates fighting the state's opioid epidemic has a one word description for Walmart's new plan to dispose of unused medications - "Brilliant!"

That's the word Sue Kruczek used Wednesday to describe a plan that Walmart announced, also on Wednesday to give people who receive prescriptions that are frequently misused a safe way to get rid of them for free.

The company, the third largest distributor of prescriptions in the United States, said on Wednesday that it will provide packets of DisposeRx, a powder that when combined with water and opioid painkiller prescriptions turns the pills into a gel that can then be thrown away safely. The hope is that by finding simpler ways to dispose of leftover painkillers, fewer pills can be misused.

"You would think it's a no brainer," said Sue Kruczek, who lost her son Nick at age 20 to a drug overdose. Since Nick's death, Sue Kruczek has been out front in trying to spread the message of the danger of the drug epidemic that killed more than 1,000 people in Connecticut, many of them young, in 2017.

"We have known that the medicine cabinet has been a gateway to addiction," Sue Kruczek said. "All unused meds should be properly disposed of. This makes it super easy. No excuse to have unused pills just hanging out in the medicine cabinet.

"Thank you Walmart," Sue Kruczek said. "Hopefully more facilities will follow suit."

More than 50 percent of people who abuse prescription opioids obtain them through friends and family, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That's proving to be a major problem as the opioid crisis rages on in the US, with more than 63,600 killed by opioid painkillers in 2016. Roughly 40 percent of those deaths involved a prescription opioid, the CDC reports.

Here's how the disposal system works

Say after a recent surgery, your doctor prescribed you seven doses of Percocet, a drug that contains acetaminophen and oxycodone. You might take just two pills and then realize that acetaminophen alone (the ingredient in Tylenol) works just as well to manage the pain you're feeling while recovering.

In most cases, those remaining five pills may sit in the medicine cabinet unused until you take the time to find a location that can dispose of it properly.

What Walmart wants to do by including packets along with the prescription is to make it possible for you to dispose of those five pills at home for free. To do that, fill the canister the prescription came in 2/3 full with water with the prescription inside, then add the packet of powder.

After shaking the canister for 30 seconds, the solution solidifies into a biodegradable gel that can then be thrown away without the concern that the opioids might get into the environment.

Photo by Jack Kramer