At-home drug disposal products can play an important role in keeping rural Coloradans safe

Old prescriptions piling up in medicine cabinets pose risks to children, pets and water supplies if flushed or tossed in the trash, and Colorado's state-funded takeback program has collected over 400,000 pounds of drugs since 2016 through more than 300 drop-off sites. But for rural residents without easy access to those sites, at-home disposal products offer an alternative.

A University of Colorado Anschutz researcher tested three brands: the Pill Terminator, which left some pills intact even after vigorous shaking with warm water; the Deterra pouch, which degraded most medications but left some capsule beads and sustained-release tablets visible after hours; and NarcX+, a reusable liquid system that eventually dissolved nearly all pills but took up to a week for some tablets to fully disappear.

All three performed better with warm water than cold, and none fully matched the speed or completeness claimed on their packaging within the timeframes tested.

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