Drug Vending Machines

An anonymous reader writes "If you guessed San Bernardino County prisons as the ideal place to put drug vending machines, come claim your prize. From the article, 'Corrections departments are responsible for so many burdensome tasks that many of their everyday functions, like administering prescription drugs to inmates, are afterthoughts for the public. However, dispensing medication was so laborious and wasteful for the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sheriff-Coroner Department that officials sought a way to streamline the process. The end product was essentially a vending machine that links to correctional facility databases and dispenses prescription medications.'"

Comments

Flushed down the toilet?

[drinkypoo]

Pharmaceutical regulations require that if medication is prepared for a patient and he or she can't be reached, it's deemed undeliverable and must be destroyed. The leftovers are typically flushed down the toilet or incinerated.

It should be illegal to flush medication down the toilet. Sewage often gets dumped unprocessed into waterways (especially when it is raining) and potent prescription medications can have significant effects when let loose in the world. It has gotten to the point where most drinking water in the USA not only has rocket fuel in it even after processing, but also antibiotics. If you don't think that will have serious repercussions, you're not thinking.

Re:Flushed down the toilet?

[schnikies79]

Flushing drugs down the toilet isn't the problem. The problem is that a large portion of many medications taken are simply peed away. Good luck telling people not to urinate in the toilet when they are taking antibiotics or birth control pills.

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Sponge Bath]

slips 1000$ bill in "Refreshing Crack!" vending machine

I was about to comment that a rock will only set you back $20, but then I remembered how much a vending machine charged me for a soda recently.

Re:What could go wrong

[LordLimecat]

Thats not what a Catch-22 is.