LOCAL LAW NO. “K” FOR 2021
A LOCAL LAW OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, TO PROVIDE FOR THE SAFE DISPOSAL OF OPIOID MEDICATIONS
Introduced: 9/13/21
By: Messrs. A. Joyce, Feeney and Domalewicz, Beston, Bruschi, Ms. Chapman, Messrs. Clay, Cleary, Commisso, Efekoro, Ethier, Fein, R. Joyce, Kuhn, Ms. Lekakis, Mr. Mayo, Mss. McLaughlin, Mclean Lane, Messrs. Miller, Reidy, Reinhardt, Ricard, Simpson, Smith and Peter:
BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY, as follows:
SECTION 1: TITLE
This Local Law shall be known as “The Albany County Prescription Opioid Safe Disposal Law.”
SECTION 2: PURPOSE AND INTENT
In 2017, this honorable body authorized the County Attorney to join litigation against major drug manufacturers to recover current and future damages to the County taxpayers from abuse of opioid pharmaceuticals. Since then, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in drug-related overdoses in the County. Any reduction in the availability of opioid medications by persons for which the drugs were not prescribed will assist the efforts of ending the opioid epidemic. Proper safe disposal of unused opioids is essential to being certain the drugs do not end up in the wrong hands, or in our environment.
Portable personal use pharmaceutical disposal systems enable the safe and environmentally friendly deactivation of the harmful chemical compounds in opioids. These inexpensive devices can assist in the proper disposal of opioids if provided to wherever a prescription is filled. Under the Albany County Prescription Opioid Safe Disposal Law, points of distribution for prescription opioids within the County will be required to provide each patient with a portable personal use pharmaceutical disposal system with each opioid prescription. Placing prescription opioid disposal systems directly in the hands of patients when the prescription is delivered will provide a more immediate and efficient opportunity for patients to deactivate and properly dispose of prescribed opioids thereby further mitigating the adverse effects of opioids on our County residents and the community.
SECTION 3: DEFINITIONS
3.1 “Controlled opioid” means each opioid-related drug and other substance listed in paragraphs (b) and (c) of Schedule II of Section 1308.12 of Part 1308-Schedules of Controlled Substances of Title 21 of the code of Federal Regulations.
3.2 “Deliver” or “delivery” means the actual, constructive or attempted transfer from one person to another of a prescribed opioid, whether or not there is an agency relationship.
3.3 “Dispense” means to deliver a prescribed opioid to an ultimate user, including by means of the internet, and includes the packaging, labelling, or compounding necessary to prepare the substance for delivery.
3.4 “Internet” means, collectively, computer and telecommunications facilities which comprise the worldwide network of networks that employ a set of industry standards and protocols, or any predecessor or successor protocol to such protocol, to exchange information of all kinds. “Internet,” as used in this Local Law, also includes other networks, whether private or public, used to transmit information by electronic means.
3.5 “Non-retrievable” means the condition or state to which an Opioid shall be rendered following a process that permanently alters that Opioid’s physical or chemical condition or state through irreversible means and thereby renders the Opioid unavailable and unusable for all practical purposes. An Opioid is considered “Non-retrievable” when it cannot be transformed to a physical or chemical condition or state as a controlled substance, as defined in 21 C.F.R. 802(6), or controlled substance analogue, as defined in 21 C.F.R. 802(32)(A).
3.6 “Opioid” means any drug or other substance having an addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability similar to morphine or being capable of conversation into a drug having such addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability.
3.7 “Person” means individual, institution, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity.
3.8 “Pharmaceutical disposal system” means a portable product designed for personal use by the ultimate user for the purpose of allowing the ultimate user of a prescribed opioid to deactivate the prescribed opioid to a non-retrievable condition or state.
3.8 “Practitioner” means a physician, dentist, podiatrist, or other person licensed or otherwise permitted under law to dispense a prescribed opioid. Such person shall be deemed a “practitioner” only as to such substances, or conduct relating to such substances, as is permitted by his or her license, permit or otherwise permitted by law.
3.9 “Prescribed opioid” means any controlled opioid dispensed pursuant to a prescription by a practitioner.
3.10 “Prescription” shall mean an official New York state prescription, an electronic prescription, an oral prescription, an out-of-state prescription, or any one of the foregoing.
3.11 “Ultimate user” means a person who has lawfully obtained, and who possesses, a prescribed opioid for his or her own use or for the use of a member of his or her household.
SECTION 4: PHARMACEUTICAL DISPOSAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
4.1 Simultaneously with the delivery of a prescribed opioid in the County to an ultimate user, the person authorized by law to dispense such prescribed opioid must also simultaneously deliver to the ultimate user a pharmaceutical disposal system.
4.2 No person delivering a pharmaceutical disposal system to an ultimate user pursuant to Section 4.1 of this Local Law may charge the ultimate user a fee or other monetary amount for the pharmaceutical disposal system itself, the delivery of the pharmaceutical disposal system to the ultimate user, or any other cost incurred by such person with respect to his, her or its compliance with Section 4.1 of this Local Law.
SECTION 5: ENFORCEMENT
The County Department of Health is hereby granted and shall have the authority to enforce this Local Law on behalf of the County. The County Department of Health may coordinate enforcement with the County Department of Consumer Affairs.
SECTION 6: PENALTIES
Upon a violation of this Local Law the County Department of Health is hereby authorized to enforce this Local Law by exercise of any one or more of its powers granted to it under the New York State Public Health Law and regulations thereunder, including, without limitation, imposition of a civil penalty not to exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000) upon a person for any and each and every violation of, or failure to comply with, any provision of this Local Law.
SECTION 7: AUTHORITY TO PROMULGATE RULES AND REGULATIONS
7.1 The Commissioner of the Albany County Department of Health (“Commissioner”) is hereby authorized and empowered to promulgate such rules and regulations as he or she deems necessary to implement this law.
7.2 Any rules and regulations promulgated by the Commissioner shall provide a mechanism for covering the costs associated with the pharmaceutical disposal systems, with such costs being covered out of any settlement related to the lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies.
SECTION 8: ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS
8.1 In adopting and implementing this Local Law, the County assumes an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. The County does not assume or impose upon its officials and employees an obligation by which any one or more of them could be liable in money damages to any person or entity who claims that a breach proximately caused injury.
8.2 This Local Law shall be construed so as not to conflict with applicable federal or state laws, rules or regulations. Nothing in this Local Law shall authorize any County bureau or department to impose any duties or obligations in conflict with limitations on municipal authority established by state or federal law at the time such bureau or department action is taken. The County shall suspend enforcement of this Local Law to the extent that said enforcement would conflict with any preemptive state or federal legislation subsequently adopted.
8.3 Nothing in this Local Law is intended to protect anticompetitive or collusive conduct nor shall this Local Law be construed to modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any antitrust law or unfair competition law of the State of New York or the United States.
8.4 This Local Law shall be construed in accordance with New York State law, including, without limitation, Title 15 (Storage, Treatment, Disposal and Transportation of Regulated Medical Waste) of Article 27 of the New York State Environmental Conservation Law, and shall not be construed in any way that would result in conflict with or preemption by any state law.
8.5 This Local Law shall be null and void on the date that statewide or federal legislation goes into effect, incorporating either the same or substantially similar provisions as are contained in this Local Law, or in the event that a pertinent state or federal administrative agency issues and promulgates regulations preempting such action by the County. The County Legislature may determine by resolution whether or not identical or substantially similar statewide legislation has been enacted for the purposes of triggering the provisions of this Section 6.5.
SECTION 9: STATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY REVIEW ACT COMPLIANCE
The County Legislature, being the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) lead agency, hereby finds and determines that this Local Law constitutes a Type II action pursuant to Section 617.5(c)(20), (21) and/or (27) of Title 6 of the New York Code of Rules and Regulations and within the meaning of Section 8-0109(2) of the New York Environmental Conservation Law as a promulgation of regulations, rules, policies, procedures, and legislative decisions in connection with continuing agency administration, management and information collection.
SECTION 10: SEVERABILITY
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, or part of this Local Law or the application thereof to any person, individual, corporation, firm, partnership, or business shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, such order or judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, or part of this law, or in its specific application.
SECTION 11: EFFECTIVE DATE
This Local Law shall become effective as provided in Municipal Home Rule Law §27.
Referred to Law and Health Committees - 9/13/21