hi i'm patrick dunican at gibbons we believe that citizens need to be informed about the complex issues that effect their lives. that's why we're proud to support the programming produced by the caucus educaitonal corporation and their partners in public televsion. keeping our water supply safe next on caucus new jersey fundign for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by actavis in cooperation with the american medicine chest challenge td bank the new jersey education association working for great public schools for every child berkeley college jfk medical center md advantage insurance company of new jersey and by choose new jersey our mission is attracting companies to the garden state promotional support provided by the star ledger powering nj.org and by new jersey monthly the magazine of the

garden state available at newsstands [music playing] [music playing] welcome to caucus new jersey i'm steve adubato you know unused prescription medication often winds up in the water supply and into the wrong hands and when that happens it threatnes everyone's safety here in the studio to teach us ways that we can keep our water safe we have frank iannarone who is the owner of madison pharmacy we also have our good friend ed wallace who is the director of community corporate affairs for united water and also the head of the united waters foundation angela conover is the director of media for the partnership for a drug free new jersey and finally captain bill sheehan is the executive director of hackensack riverkeeper i want to thank you all for joining us talking about keeping our water supply safe throughout this program we're gonna see

several websites talking about how you as citizens of this region can participate in the effort to keep our water system safe. look there's a problem prescription drugs are being disposed in irresponsible ways it's not your fault may not be my fault our fault but there's a problem and so bottom line is that let me ask you this we're about to show a piece of video provided by united water that talks about the fac that there's a problem mm hmm there is a problem? there is a problem describe it the problem is as our generation did when we have unusued medications you know my parents your parents we took the medications and poured em down the toilet and disposed of them that somehow filters back into our water system even though it's trace amounts they're there and we're trying to educate the public on there are better and a cleaner way to dispose of unusued medications um that's why if you go to the website which you'll see yup on www.disposemymeds.org www.disposemymeds.org is one of the sites we have go ahead correct. and they'll tell you how you can go to your

local pharmacy and actually dispose of your medications angela i'm gonna come to you right after this we're actually gonna take a look at this www.disposemymeds.org piece of information video providd by our friends at united water and then we'll talk about it right after this each year americans fill four billion prescriptions but as much as one third of that medication will never be used some of this waste ends up in the rivers lakes and streams that make up our drinking water supply the united water foundation and the national community of pharmacists association have partnered to bring you a simple solution dispose your meds responsibly go to www.disposemymeds.org to find a participating pharmacy and to learn more angela when you see a video like that okay i mean trying to make people aware public awareness is that our biggest challenge? well i think it's important i think anything that tells people to be aware of what they have in their home is an important message but you know we ask parents we ask family members you know know what's in your house take inventory

of what you have find out because we know that young people aside from the consequences on the environment that young people are accessing these meds and diverting them and abusing them but here's the thing we're at the caucus educaitonal corporation together with our partners in public broadcasting wnet and njtv and our other partners we've been part of a two year effort together with the partnership mm hmm for a drug free new jersey and we also are doing some of the stuff on the water end but these two issues come together here yes you're about to see a website put up right after this the american medicine chest website as people look at that angela tell folks what they're gonna see there and how the information on that website because we want to connect social media you know the internet to this program when they see that how that connects that information there to try to keep the waterways safe go ahead absolutely well when you go onto americanmedicinechest.com you'll find information on how to properly dispose of your

medicines any medicine that you have been prescribed regardless of the classification or the schedule we'll talk about that in a second that it is you go on the website you type in your zip code and all of the local permanent collection sites where you can dispose of anything we'll list for you so it tells you where you can go are they called drop boxes or? yes they're medicine drop boxes we have all of the disposal boxes and drop boxes that have been obtained through the attorney general's office through project medicine drop all of the boxes that local community coalitions have purchased and have housed in law enforcement across the state so those things are there but also there are five steps that people may see in there five steps yes and by the way if you look on that website you'll see the five basic steps which are can you do them quickly? sure take inventory of what you have in your home find out what you have safely securely secure what you are planning to keep dispose properly of what you

don't need only take your medicine that's prescribed always and most importantly talk to your children about the dangers of abusing and experimenting with these drugs and what's interesting here on your end as a pharmacist right you've got an interesting situation because talk to folks about why first you're so engaged in ammd involved in this issue but also how far you can go and how far you can't go because of the current laws? well it's um you know we it's a community service type thing that we do i mean we have you're a pharmacist? yes we actually have to pay for the box we get it from ncpa who's been tremendously... what's that? national community pharmacy association they provide you a box? yes what do you do with it? that's called a dispose my meds okay it's a program if you were to google that you would find out the website will be up there dispose my meds go ahead and so we get a box a large box it's about 18 inches by 18 inches three feet tall it's sealed it's shipped to us you bring in a prescription that's expired you don't need any longer we bring it in there's a hole in the top

not a wide open hole if you put your hand in you can't get it out so it's tamper proof that's good to know go ahead so we put the top of the bottle in dump it meds go into the bottle we'll then either take the name off the bottle and dispose of the bottle we give it back to the patient we don't want the box... confidential? yes what can people this is important folks what can people bring to you to be disposed and what can't they bring to you? they can't bring anything that's a scheduled drug or a controlled drug which is... give us an example sleeping pills narcotic pain killers attention defecit drugs thigs of that nature they can't? they cannot bring it to us why is that? that's the law that's the current dea regulation i believe the drug enforcement administration has said you cannot bring those drugs in but they can bring...? any non controlled drug penecillin blood pressure medication you know anti inflammatories things of that nature you... listen well on capitol report which is our public policy program i do with my colleage rafael pi roman from wnet we'll talk about the public policy implications of that you believe the

law should be changed absolutely absolutely because? well an example of we're lucky in madison where we have a 24/7 365 drop box at our police department also but if you're a community which does not have such a service and a loved one passes you have bottles of say oxycodon oxycoton tylenol with codeine laying around you need to wait for a biannual event from the dea or amcc possibly six months for that next event american medicine chest yes you're saying it's they're there but it's not as accessible and you're worried about what people i'm putting words in your mouth i i'm wrong tell me no it's good you're worried about what people are gonna do in the meantime with some of these drugs? it could sit there feasibly six months or flush them down the toilet yes well that's the problem into the waterway am i wrong there? absolutely absolultely jump in now that it's in the waterway now you know better than anyone what happens? well it's a severe problem with the waterways the only way to really treat the water directly to get this kind of stuff out of the water is so... by the way excuse me you should tell people why you know this

people don't know your job alright well i'm a hackensack river keeper and... they still don't know what it means a water keeper is a international organization of water advocates our principal function is to provide advocacy for the issue of clean water got it clean water is one of those life giving substances that we can't do without and cclean water is also a right that everybody has everybody has a right to it and if you turn on the tap or if you go to the beach you should have a right to access clean water what are these prescription srugs doing to the waterways that you see? well they get in there and like ed said earlier base amounts but some of these drugs in trace amounts if there's a allergy it can trigger an allgery and they'll chase that around for weeks in the doctor's office trying to figure out what's infecting the person never thinking it's something coming from their drinking water it also has a profound impact on wildlife and we've talked about this

before but the subject of transgendered fish transgendered fish? that where estrogen and other hormones that get into the estuaries into you know the areas that are the nurseries for our fish entire populations of male fish turn into female fish and then they can't reproduce of course of course and now what happens? the species starts to collapse and the regulatory people in the fishing industry start looking at end of the hook solutions of how to control the collapse but when it's actually happening from ins... the physiology of the fish the spinoff effect of this extraordinary and let me ask you at united water big deal. why? why? because... well um we're we you know part of our business is consumer based we're sending water to people to drink out of their faucets to take their showers of course it's important to us um part of the problem is the epa has not come out with an the environmental protection agency this life the federal government that's correct go ahead what is an acceptable level? they're still doing tests

i don't know... we don't know they're still doing tests to find out where that number should be um but what do you do but see i know you guys and the industry but let's just talk about you guys there are some i thought there was some technology that you have that is supposed to be trying to deal with this issue we have the technology to determine what's in the water we don't really have the technology yet to filter it out you don't we don't well how does it help the first part by knowing what is in it? well we report back to the epa we report to them to find out how we're gonna go forward with this more information is always better so you give it to them and...? we're hoping tehy come out with a determination level so that we can do something to start filtering it but are you limited until they do? are we as citizens as a society limited until the federal government says unacceptable level we've got to change this

and then there's a movement toward that level? as with all regulations steve when the government uh regulates a particular pollutant and let's call the pharmaceuticals for the sake of this conversation a pollutant right if the company if united water were to go out and invest in technology that to get this out and then six months or a year later the regulations come out and the technology they've invested in is not adequate to meet the regulatory process we're dead you know they're dead so they're gonna have to go out and... they're kinda waiting? it's an uncomfortable waiting game because that's not what you want to do? well what would you rather do right now? what would i rather do? i'd rather have clean water for everybody that's what we want that's the ultimate goal in life is to have clean fresh water accssible to everyone that's what you'd rather do and what would you rather do? as a pharmacist who's told... it's interesting you're doing something you're doing something and you want to

both do more? from our end it's prevention you know so i would like to take back everything that people aren't gonna need you know not only... not just...? right or any scheduled drug you know not just non narcotics or non controlled but angela let's be fair to play devil's advocate there's gotta be a reason why there's pushback on the other drugs there's gotta be a reason i don't know what it is why the department of excuse me the environmental protection agency hasn't established those levels i don't know what it is help us on this sure well i know that the dea has been reviewing the regulations to loosen up that's still the federal govenrment as well federal government um since 2011 so you know it's been a few years of conversation about allowing other entities to accept the medicines and they know a lot of the feedback is that you know security for the pharmacy and the possibility of diversion of that level once woah they're concerned... oh wait a minute hold on we are turning into a public policy discussion so in many ways some folks in the federal government at least on this are concerned about what pharmacists might do if in fact those other more

dangerous allegedly drugs came back and what they might do with them as opposed to disposing of them well that's one thing but also if the medicines are in the lobby of the store or right in the store and they're all scheduled drugs and they've all heard stories so we know how people are accessing them so we're doing this public you know this public broadcasting program trying to make help people not just describe the problem but we're trying to help people do something be proactive that's the whole reason we got into this public awareness campaign so what is the message for people given all these challenges? you know that's a great question because the message is to understand and control what's in your medicine cabinets a lot of people don't do that for example steve a couple of years ago i was in delaware and my shoulder froze right so i go to urgent care and i get medication to right so i'm sitting on the beach listening to the greatful dead i'm in a happy place right? well it has to be the greatful dead? it had to be the greatful dead [laughter] [laughter] right the next day my wife

who was a registered nurse she said how does your shoulder feel? i said it's much better she took the medicaiton dumped it down the toilet because that's the generational thing bad? very bad very bad? very bad you don't do it you just don't do it i think to really fix this problem not only do we have to make the public aware but we need to make generations aware we need to go to medical schools we need to tell nursing schools so that the new medical technicians as they come up understand how to properly dispose of medications but also some of the works we've done for our... i'll come back to you bill some of work we've done with the partnership is we've had physicians we've had physicians together in some of the forms we had right? absolutely but we bring them together and we talk about the role physicians... you're smiling yes some of the roles that physicians play in this process talk about that and how many... how often they're prescribing prescription drugs how much how often they're refilling those drugs right? absolutely because as you said physicians it's a generational

thing and what they we're taught in medical school about the level of pain and how many prescriptions to write we know that you know there's prescribing and overprescribing and we have conversations and we've had a series of symposiums across the state at the partnership working with the dea working with the medical society of new jersey what do i do with all these exactly drugs left over i'm feeling good right now letting them know what to do isn't that a question of sorry for interrupting yes isn't that what a lot of people are asking right now you're smiling because i don't throw them down the toilet but i will say this and i've said this on many programs and i've learned so much in doing this series i will just put them in the drawer. i know i'm supposed to finish them but if i am feeling much better unless it's an antibiotic cause i know i'm supposed to finish those i will sit there and go i'm good mm hmm 'm not throwing it in the toilet because we've done these programs but i will put them in the drawer and i know the american medicine chest challenge says what am i supposed to do? you need to secure them within the home and we have kids i'm doing the wrong thing jump in doing the wrong thing steve well you know as far as

securing that's great track your meds that you had mentioned earlier and by the way secure is a funny word secure means you lock them up you get em away yes you lock them up not accessable go ahead we actually sell boxes in our store which have their lock and you cna secure them to a wall or secure them somewhere if you want to lock them you have a babysitter come over your house contractor working your house after you use the bathroom you have no idea what people are doing what are you saying to people as they come in cause you are an educator you're an advocate you got totally involved in this as a pharmacist your industry is involved to a significant degree what are you telling your folks as they come in? we're preventing problems we're preventing both from kids taking this stuff we're preventing senior citizens from making mistakes and you have kids i have two children yes luckily though they've grown up as a father and a pharmacist so they're terrified of medications you know they know the dangers not everyone lives in the household like that but you know so you know it's not only about the kids and the water supply it's also senior citizens and you know i'll have what do they have to do with it? well a senior citizen comes in pulling out a bottle from 2011 you know asking me about it when it was discontinued she doesn't take it anymore they're confused as they

get older it's all prevention so if they clean it out mistakes can't be made clean it out mm hmm clean up the medicine cabinet and see i want to be clear that expression sounds innocuous enough clean it out they may think clean it out throw it in the garbage right that's not the way we want to go either no correct? it is correct cause especially if someone is elderly or sick in the home a lot of times we hear from our law enforcement partners that people know that and search through the garbage and access the medicines that have been in the garbage to divert them can that wind up in the water as well? or no? well i'll tell you i want to... i aactually want to bring the conversation back around to the public awareness issue go ahead that's the challenge because increasing public awareness is what we do every day at hackensack river keeper awareness of the wildlife awareness of the water quality awareness of people's responsibility to the water in april we held the first annual earth fest at overpeck park over in bergen

county and following in the footsteps of my colleagues around the country what i wanted to do is i wanted to have a drug drop at the earth fest a drug drop? with the police the bergen county police we had a secured area in the park where the people come with their drugs and drop their drugs off with the police so that they be disposed of in one of those boxes did you tell people beforehand? and... well it never got there what do you mean? because they... the police shut it down. that was one of the features that we wanted to have at the earth fest because it would increase public awareness and they said but you don't have to worry about that becuase we've got these mailboxes in our local police stations now they missed the point the point was getting people to understand that those mailboxes are out there getting people to understand that the drop med boxes are available and why they're suppose to do it while they're out there next to the creek having a good time paddling enjoying the water and then getting that serious message by seeing dispose

your meds right so what do you so listen we're not here to be critical of law enforcement right but i'll tell you that story anecdotal as it is is relevant is it not ed? it is go ahead it is. here we're trying to bring in what we would think are partners we need partners? well partners work and when a partner refuses or says we don't need to because we already have in place that sends kind of a scary message because we need to think of recycling meds the same way 15 years ago we talked about recycling bottles yeah let's talk about that we have to get to that same mindset where now recycling bottles that we buy at home for whether it be for soda right water... it's second nature yes we just do it we need to get that way with our medications angela has said you've told out producers that you

believe that at some point we're gonna get to that o. i do think there's gotta be a community change but look at all the obstacles absolutely what's it gonna take? we have to engage everyone from those who are prescribing those who are dispensing you know we need to engage everyone and have everyone on the same page i mean everyone needs to have the same message and understand and i think then the change will come and the understanding and this is a relatively new how new is it? i would say it... probably peaked in the prevention field probably in 2009 that's when i started to engage... so you're only getting it three or four years old? i do i think that that's when it finally came five years old that's it absolutely you know our first initiative our first statewide initiative was in 2009 and you know that was following the first you know wave of research that was coming out about the spike in the diversion of these medicines so but it just seems to me that i mean the recycling thing is actually a really good analogy because most people feel you know what's interesting? not for everyone becuase i've seen

people at parties throw bottles and cans in the garbage and i'll look at them and i you're joking right? and oh come on it's a party but there's more and i'm not trying to say that to make myself look good but i will say this there's more social pressure on people to do the right thing with respect to recycling than i've ever seen before meaning it's awkward to be the one to just throw the can or a bottle in the garbage can mm hmm there's not that kind of social pressure or you don't feel ostracized because you're dumping medication prescription drugs in the garbage or into the toilet right? cause nobody knows? but awareness is increasing and you know as... you do think that? i do. i mean there's positive in everything if you look at the dea and the amcc programs i think they've pulled a million the medicine chest again? yeah yes think they pulled in millions of pounds are

we are making some progress? yes ncpa is taking in over 200... what's that? national committment the drop box i have in my store okay that organization is taking in over 200,000 pounds that's in spite of the fact that you're not allowed to take in some of the drugs that you would like to be able to take in in spite of that you're still making progress? and controlled drugs aren't the only problem i mean by taking this stuff that we're taking in that's not controlled you know there's the kids are misusing drugs not the right way 650 pounds you took in last year? yup yeah that was that the 650 pounds was the medicine department themselves what would have happened if you hadn't taken that in? where would those drugs have wound up? who knows? you know kids are using things because it's a prescription drug they're the fallacy that it's safer than an illicit drug so they're reading blogs talking to kids oh i'm gonna take a zoloft and a robutussin and see what it does yeah well that's one problem but then in the waterways it's a whole nother problem but we're preventing this we're preventing water and you know abuse and confusion it's been very successful

we're taking millions of pounds you know we have a long way to go but there's been a lot of success. getting back to your analogy about the party and the person throwing the bottle in the garbage can. disposing of medication is a much more personal issue what do you mean? and it's a much more difficult conversation to have with a stranger you know what would you say to somebody on the streets that walked up and said are you disposing of your medications properly? [laughter] mind your business? yeah [laughter] mind your business in jersey you might say more than that you might say more than that [laughter] yeah right what's it to you? but i would say would someone begin to say hey listen that could wind up in the waterways and that could pollute our water and hurt our forget about just our fish could affect the rest of us mm hmm would someone say get out of here mind your business you know like that's a crazy like do people actually believe that there's a direct correlation between what you put in prescription drugs into the toilet it goes into the water stream and our health do you think people actually make that connection? it's according to who's delivering the message why isn't this not a national a jerseywide and then

national campaign in the way recycling was in the way stopping smoking was why is this not a national cause celebre campaign? i don't know and that's a great question it should be it truly should be because every state has a waterway every state has whether united water's in it or not there's something there that we should be cognisant of and know about a few seconds let's just say this it's not an actual campaign but whatever it is we want to be a part of it and you have helped us thank you so much great job thank you the preceding program has been a production of the caucus educaitonal corporation celebrating over 25 years of broadcast excellence and thirteen for wnet njtv and whyy funding for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by actavis in cooperation with the american medicine chest challenge td bank the new jersey educaiton association berkeley college

jfk medical center md advantage insurance company of new jersey and by choose new jersey transportation provided by air brook limousine serving the metropolitan new york new jersey area caucus new jersey has been produced in partnership with tristar studios this program has been made possible in part by united water each year americans fill four billion prescriptions but as much as one third of that medication will never be used some of this waste ends up in the rivers lakes and streams that make up our drinking water supply. the united water foundation and the national community pharmacist association have partnered to bring you a simple solution dispose your meds responsibly go to www.disposemymeds.org to find a participating pharmacy and to learn more a public service message from the united water foundation and ncpa closed captioning provided by acac

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: wild swings on wall street. what's sparking all that volatility and making investors nervous? good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this tuesday, president obama gathers military leaders from twenty countries to determine how best to combat islamic state militants gaining ground in iraq and syria. another tight senate race, this one in unpredictable colorado, where women could make the difference. >> these people of colorado are very independent. and i think as soon as they telelike they're -- feel lik