Your leftover and unexpired drugs will no longer remain unused as they can reach to the needy through the ‘Medicine Box’ you may find at your favourite stores.
To begin with the initiative, Inner Wheel Club of Coimbatore has kept a medicine collection box at a fruit stall on Tiruchi Road where people can drop their leftover and unexpired medicines. The organisation has plans to install more such boxes at departmental stores at key locations in Coimbatore.
Members of Inner Wheel Club will collect the drugs at frequent intervals, sort them with a help of a pharmacologist and hand them over to the needy at old age homes.
“The first box was put at Pazhamudhir Nilayam opposite Krishna Colony on Tiruchi Road on December 14. The management supported us by providing a clean and safe space to keep the box. We have plans to keep medicine boxes at Saibaba Colony and R.S. Puram,” said Shanthi Rajasekhar, president of Inner Wheel Club, Coimbatore.
Before dropping medicines in the box, donors must ensure that they are unused and unexpired. If a strip of tablet is dropped, it should have the full name of the drug. Cut tablets, drugs and opened bottles must not be dropped in the box.
“The drugs will be sorted with the help of a doctor or pharmacologist before handing over to the needy. Anything ranging from Paracetamol or multi-vitamin tablets to expensive drugs that are not affordable to the economically weak can be dropped in the box,” added Ms. Rajasekhar.
