New bill aims to allow unused prescriptions to be resold at discounted prices

The cost of medicine is a huge drain on your budget, but today lawmakers are talking about using leftover pills to help get your costs down.

To get access you would need an ID card and it would be for people who don’t have prescription coverage through insurance or Medicaid.

A pharmacy owner says the impact for Southwest Florida would be big.

It’s hard to quantify just how many unused drugs are thrown away, but at disposal pharmacy’s like the one on Cypress Lakes Drive called Cypress Pharmacy, that waste adds up.

“Unfortunately patients that have passed away or have been stopped on the medications, they’re throwing away thousands of medications every day,” said Cypress Pharmacy Co-owner, TJ DePaola.

DePaola empties a disposal bin, which is larger than your kitchen trash can, into an incinerator every few days.

“Patients are having to pay for a medication that someone else has thrown out,” DePaola said.

But that could change soon with the prescription drug repository program, which sits in the hands of the State Senate.

It would allow local pharmacies, hospitals, healthcare providers and nursing homes to collect unopened prescription bottles.

They would then go through a series of inspections by a contracted pharmacist before a qualified patient in the program could pick it up for free.

“I think it’d be a great program because there’s a lot of seniors here and single moms that can’t afford prescriptions…You have to either eat or buy their medicine, it’s terrible,” said Fort Myers resident, Nancy Hubbell.

Cypress Pharmacy says if the bill passes they would consider registering to become a repository.

A list of available prescriptions would be published on the Department of Health’s website.

Reporter: Janae Muchmore



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