Who Will Pay for Disposal? Drug Companies Lose Against Local Governments in California and Washington

Published on September 20, 2013 05:37 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government

Though there still is no continuous national program to properly dispose of the 10 to 40 percent of prescription and over-the-counter medications that go unused, a few local governments in California and Washington are leading the charge to find sustainable funding sources.

During the summer of 2012, Alameda County, California, signed a first-in-the-nation law requiring drug manufacturers to pay for a program to collect and dispose of unused pills. The county, home to 1.5 million people on the east side of San Francisco Bay, was subsequently sued by the drug industry, which claimed a constitutional violation due to a burden on interstate commerce.

Two weeks ago, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco upheld Alameda's program. Coupled with a similar law passed this June in King County, Washington, local governments are beginning to succeed where federal and state governments have failed in forcing drug manufacturers to foot the bill for disposal programs.

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