A New York may has been caught stealing transdermal drug patches from clinical wastes. Erick St. Louis of Shirley faces six felony counts of unlawful release of regulated medical waste. He’s held on $10,000 bail.
Prosecutors say St. Louis scavenged for medical waste behind nursing homes, looking for Fentanyl skin patches. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic drug used for pain management. They say he was searching for remnants of the drug on the patches.
He is also accused of tossing the remaining medical waste — blood vials, used syringes and medication bottles — in parks and near a school.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP68dd587d958849389c733ed7afd53bce.html
These Controlled Drug pain relief patches will be used only in the most severe cases but may be found in waste from chronic care facilities and hospices, from some patients being treated in their own home, and occasionally from veterinary practice.
As simple adhesive patches, disposal is too often by tossing into a clinical waste sack or sharps bin, or even into domestic refuse, despite the requirements of the Controlled Drug regulations and rules regarding segregation and disposal of pharmaceuticals. It certainly didn’t work for this guy who reportedly resorted to licking the used patches to get a high, while throwing away other components of the clinical waste containers — blood vials, used syringes and medication bottles — in parks and near a school.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/da-man-licked-stolen-medical-waste-to-get-high-1.2474700
Should there be any doubt about the need for waste security this provides the evidence. It is not unknown for clinical wastes to be targetted, usually for sharps bins that contain a convenient supply of syringes, needles and controlled drug residues.
Unfortunately, the security of clinical wastes appears to be ignored, at least until things go wrong, by the Environment Agency, HSE, and by most producers – though not contractors who are rigidly bound by permitting conditions. producers will leave carts unlocked, and wastes stored in unlocked compounds or more commonly in a far corner of the car park!
Waste security failures are particularly common with Local Authorities, who insist on home generated clinical wastes being placed on the doorstep or kerbside for 12 hours or more to await collection.
An update to the 2007/8 audit of Local Authority approaches to the management of clinical wastes from domestic premises is curently in progress. Results so far show few improvements.