Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Julian Earl — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:46:13 GMT

It does not have to be a police officer nowadays, it can be one of the people stated in the following:

"Schedule 2 controlled drugs may not be destroyed except in the presence of an Animal Medicines Inspectorate (AMI) or RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Inspector, a witnessing veterinary surgeon who is independent of the practice concerned (this excludes locums who have or are acting in the practice, family members or any relationship that may pose a risk of collusion), or another person authorised to witness the destruction of controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 or the Misuse of Drugs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 such as a Police contact. A record must be made of the date of destruction and the quantity destroyed, which the witness must sign. It is good practice to also record the name of the controlled drug, form, strength and quantity, date it was destroyed and the signature of the witness and the professional destroying it."

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Dexter Smith — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:00:13 GMT

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]I am aware that the method described by Jill is widely accepted but I would like to see the agreement in writing in a form that I could use to defend myself in court before I went down the cat litter route. [/quote]

I did in fact Email the officer in question about the disposal of silly little amounts and he replied saying the same as Jill. Book it all out but record that the excess was wasted/destroyed - and he recommended cat litter. He would only need to be present for larger, out of date quantities, and he said he would probably fit it in with another local visit to save time/money

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Rob Loxley — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:25:42 GMT

http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/restooldestrcd.pdf
http://www.rpsgb.org/pdfs/cdsafedestructionguid.pdf

We therefore dispense whole vials to an animal, and any left over is treated as 'patient returned' and rendered irretrievable in house (remnants in vials into an in-use sharps bin, remnants of infusions absorbed with cat litter, patches folded over on themselves).

Just make sure nothing goes out of date...

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Laurence Webb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:50:15 GMT

[quote user="Mike Martin"]

If I crack open a 30mg vial of morphine, use 20mg, I usually put the glass vial and residual morphine in the sharps waste. We record the vials and quantities used. Is this wrong/right?

[/quote]

I use 10mg vials. Unlikey to have any waste then! We also have a controlled drug pharmaceutical container kept in the CD cupboard where any leftovers or used fentanyl patches etc go. It took me 4 years to fill the last one up, but that was taken away by our normal waste contractor (ned special consignment note for CD waste though). Anything going into it is recorded so we can tally up drugs supplied with disposals if required. Empty vials go in with the normal pharmaceutical waste.

We've just had our PSS inspection and out inspector was happy with this system.

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Hannah Wynne Richards — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:49:21 GMT

Same here-I'm not sure if the VMD actually have the legal right to ammend the law-still I suppose a Past- President of RCVS would be a pretty impressive witness in the local Magistrates Court- Jill may find herself in frequent demand in the Thames Valley area !!!!!!!!

Jill. If you find out the Christian name of that DI-you know the one who likes whisky, and Wagner, and drives a marroon Jag-let me know

Wynne

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Malcolm Ness — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:12:10 GMT

We have had a policemen visit to deal with an out of date bottle of pethidine. He remarked that in 9 years in the drug squad ours was the first time he had been asked to supervise such a disposal - he also made a very bad taste but rather amusing remark about old ladies, Dr Shipman and the fact that he had never been called for duty by the local GP.

I am aware that the method described by Jill is widely accepted but I would like to see the agreement in writing in a form that I could use to defend myself in court before I went down the cat litter route.

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Jill Nute — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:51:42 GMT

Where a small quantity of a vial is left it may be disposed of by mixing with eg cat litter and adding to the usual pharmaceutical waste container, it should be recorded in the CD register by booking out the whole vial to the client, stating eg 0.8ml used, 0.2 ml discarded. Where larger quantities are involved, eg OOD whole bottles, denaturing kits can be used, but the destruction/inactivation must be supervised, this can be by a policeman, but if you are due a Practice Standards Scheme visit, or from one of the VMD inspectors, these inspectors are also able to supervise this destruction, after which the pot from the kit can then join the usual pharmaceutical waste route once it has solidified.

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Charlotte Marshall — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:31:31 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]It usually stays on the shelf, and the vial thrown away once the remaining contents have evaporated.[/quote]

DITTO!

We have got one of the pots for making controlled drugs unusable in order to get rid of the imobilon sitting in the DD cupboard which has been there for years. Trouble is no one really wants to touch the stuff so we haven't got round to trying to get the police in to witness it!

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Clive Ansell — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:51:05 GMT

I work in many different practices, and I have never known it to be done. It usually stays on the shelf, and the vial thrown away once the remaining contents have evaporated.

It may all change soon anyway, Gordon Clown Brown wants PC plod on the street at least 80% of their time reassuring people they are safe (in the run up to the election)

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Nixthevet — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:49:45 GMT

Hi Mike,

I have always tried to do this. It sometimes taked forever to get a police officer to actually coem to the surgery though-as you can imagine they tend to have much more important things to do.

I did recently get Kent police to come out withing about 5 days. They said they'd never had a request to witness destruction before.

When you open a vial its counted as the whole vial being prescribed to the one animal and we generally then discard any excess by soaking it into cotton wool and then discard vial in with sharps as per usual. It's things like the larger bottles of pethidine that we have to occasionally get the police out to witness the destruction of.

[quote user="Mike Martin"]

Yes. But do people actually do this?

[/quote]

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Mike Martin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:36:23 GMT

Yes. But do people actually do this?

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:33:19 GMT

The law says that unused Shedule 2 CD drugs must be disposed of inthe presence of an officer authorised by the Secretary of State i e a Police Constable Mike, I'll e-mail you directly with some more information

Wynne

Re: Police witnessing destruction of Controlled Drugs

Vikki Halliday LLB — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:16:43 GMT

Sounds like a complete waste of public funding to me...

Perhaps they should concentrate more on catching the B's who are more likely to illicitly use/supply such drugs?