Recently, some netizens shared a video: It was found that a large amount of ibuprofen was thrown in the trash can downstairs together with other medicines. These medicines were not opened. It is conservatively estimated that there are hundreds of boxes.
Another netizen posted about the 1,000 tablets of antipyretics he bought, but because they arrived late, they lost their use and were very difficult to deal with.
Since then, "hundreds of boxes of ibuprofen were thrown into the trash can" appeared on Weibo's hot search, together with many similar incidents before, sparked discussions on issues such as "how harmful are expired drugs" and "how to deal with excessive stockpiling of drugs".
Ibuprofen has gone from "hard to find a drug" to a large number of throwing away, which is an irony to the boom in rushing for drugs.
In the initial stage of the optimization and adjustment of the epidemic prevention policy, many cold medicines, antipyretics, cough medicines, etc. were sold out, and ibuprofen was one of the most sought-after medicines.
The wind of panic buying became more and more violent, and rational reminders were submerged instead.
Today's sought-after drugs have become abandoned drugs, which is the inevitable result of excessive drug hoarding.
Individuals hoard too much medicine and finally have to discard it, which will inevitably suffer economic losses.
It is still a trivial matter to waste money, and the threat of expired drugs to people's health cannot be underestimated.
If the medicine expires without knowing it, the elderly and children are easy to take it by mistake, and it may even be life-threatening.
Paying a huge price for this, but also the social and ecological environment.
Drugs, no matter whether they are expired or not, contain various chemical elements. Random discarding will pollute land and water sources, posing a threat to the biological chain; if discarding antibiotics, it will also break the balance of bacterial flora in the environment and increase bacterial resistance; Expired drugs may also be recycled by illegal vendors and put on the market again.
All of these make people worry about the phenomenon of hoarding a large number of medicines and throwing away expired medicines at will.
Hundreds of boxes of ibuprofen were thrown into the trash can. In addition to following the trend and hoarding drugs as a lesson, it is worth thinking about how to establish a unified long-term and standardized drug recycling mechanism.
Expired medicines are hazardous wastes and are included in the National Catalog of Hazardous Wastes, and should be recycled in accordance with hazardous waste regulations.
However, recycling involves the establishment of recycling points, classified storage and transportation, and centralized destruction. The process is relatively complicated, and there is no unified answer to questions such as "who will do it" and "how to do it".
Recycling expired drugs is expensive, and recycling at a loss is not a long-term solution.
Although recycling is difficult, there are some effective practices.
Drug replacement insurance is an innovative approach. In this model, the government purchases insurance with pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies cooperate with pharmacies, and pharmacies sign drug replacement service contracts with residents to provide residents with preferential replacement services for expired drugs. Residents benefit from the replacement, and pharmacies You can also get premium income.
In addition, many places have also explored ways to exchange expired medicines for daily necessities and carry out paid recycling public welfare activities.
There are also pharmaceutical companies exploring the "Internet + Expired Drug Recycling" model. By scanning the traceability code of the medicine box, consumers can call the courier to collect it at their door with one click.
These methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, which need to be summarized and refined.
No matter which mode is used to recycle expired drugs, it is based on the premise of conscious awareness of expired drug recycling.
If the general public lacks awareness of recycling, random throwing will still be common even if there are multiple recycling channels.
From the source point of view, reducing the phenomenon of drug waste also depends on increasing the publicity of drug knowledge, guiding residents to establish the concept of rational drug use, hospitals to eliminate "big prescriptions", and relevant departments to continue to crack down on drug speculation.
Luo Zhihua (China Youth Daily)