Sept. 9 Daily News editorial

The abuse of prescription drugs has become widespread over the past several years. Cowlitz County got its wake-up call a couple of years ago, when area law enforcement rounded up nearly two dozen local residents suspected in the illegal sale of prescription painkillers.

County residents learned that prescription drug abuse is a problem that’s mostly affecting the community’s young people. The majority of those arrested in 2007 were in their early twenties, and most of the people buying the prescription drugs illegally were teenagers in area middle schools and high schools.

The good news this week is that county residents soon will have a way to safely clear unused narcotics from their medicine cabinets, where the drugs could be stolen and find their way to the street. The county will provide a secure disposal for prescription painkillers in about a month, according to Daily News reporter Leslie Slape.

The disposal program outlined by Slape in Monday’s Daily News appears very similar to one launched in Fife, Wash., last January. Citizens in that city deposit their unused prescription drugs in a secure drop-off box located at the Fife Police Department. The drugs are then delivered to a company for incineration. The program's been deemed a success by city officials. Fife City Council member Glenn Hull recently told The News Tribune of Tacoma that more than 20 pounds of drugs have been turned in since the program began at the first of the year.

Drug disposal programs, such as Fife’s and the one Cowlitz County is preparing to launch, have a dual purpose. In addition to helping keep many unused prescription painkillers off the streets, these programs reduce the amount of prescription medications that are regularly flushed down toilets.

Those flushed drugs eventually make their way back into the drinking water. A recent Associated Press investigation found that at least 46 million citizens nationwide are supplied with drinking water that has tested positive for traces of pharmaceuticals. The investigation also found that even small concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species.

The more immediate concern, however, is reducing the number of unused prescription painkillers that end up in this area’s schools and on the streets. Prescription painkillers have become the drug of chose for teenagers, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Where do young people obtain these drugs? Mostly at home, from medicine cabinets. A survey by the White House drug policy office found that more than three in five teens nationwide say prescription painkillers are easy to steal from parents.

The problem appears to be particularly acute in this state. Washington ranks sixth in the nation in the abuse of prescription pain relievers, behind Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. Locally, the abuse of prescription drugs has had deadly consequences. The office of the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington reported in 2007 that 40 people died in Cowlitz County in the previous 2 1/2 years from overdoses of prescription drugs — more than double the number of deaths due to illegal street drugs over the same period.

A disposal program for unused narcotics won’t solve the county’s problem with prescription drug abuse. But it’s certainly an important step in the right direction.