Posted by yxibow on November 22, 2006, at 0:34:40
In reply to Re: Compassionate Need Meds Redistribution » stargazer, posted by Quintal on November 21, 2006, at 22:19:17
> Casting my eye over the small pharmacy of unused and discarded tablets, capsules and syrups I possess I began to feel slightly guilty today. There are people all over the world in terrible pain who have are living in poverty and have no access to these meds I have rejected for, sometimes, trivial reasons when I put them into the wider perspective. I wish there were a way I could donate them via a compassionate need agency to people both in the west and in developing countries who are in desperate need. A pharmacological Oxfam of sorts.
> Is anyone aware of such an organisation? If not is there a way of setting one up to collect and distribute them?
>
> There are no doubt laws to prohibit this sort of exchange of prescription drugs, but could the drug companies and pharmacies themselves not offer some sort of service like this where if a drug is unsuccessful you return any surplus to the dispensing pharmacy, fill in a questionnaire and the results are logged and the medication then redistributed?
>
> QYes, there are -- and state laws supercede Federal laws (at least here in the US) in some cases.
For example, this reprint from the NY Times
http://alamaro.home.comcast.net/New_York_Times_May_18_2005.htm
And this retroviral redistribution project for distribution to other countries that do not forbid this.
http://www.thebody.com/cria/fall06/recycling.html?m172o
Just some examples, that yes, there are ways around Federal laws to donate medication but I'm sure that even these organizations must check the quality or age of the medications and make judgment calls on whether to accept or pitch certain drugs especially in this day and age.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:703230
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061117/msgs/706051.html