Drug Vending Machines 97
An anonymous reader writes "If you guessed San Bernardino County prisons as the ideal place to put drug vending machines, come claim your prize. From the article, 'Corrections departments are responsible for so many burdensome tasks that many of their everyday functions, like administering prescription drugs to inmates, are afterthoughts for the public. However, dispensing medication was so laborious and wasteful for the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sheriff-Coroner Department that officials sought a way to streamline the process. The end product was essentially a vending machine that links to correctional facility databases and dispenses prescription medications.'"
I expected... (Score:4, Insightful)
I expected Heroin/Crack dispensers reading the headline.
Left disappointed.
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I expected Heroin/Crack dispensers reading the headline.
Left disappointed.
Maybe not, but we had a Heroin/Crack addict reading the headline...
What could go wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
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It's a clever idea, but what is making sure they take the drugs?
Who is making sure of that with the current setup?
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In most cases the prisoners/patients are not allow to walk away until they take the medication in front of the staff. But the catch22 is most of the prisoners/patients just don't swallow the pills or if they do they force them back out later.
in either case it seem to be a lose lose situation but if this solution saves money for that state it's not a bad idea IMO
Re:What could go wrong (Score:5, Informative)
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It's a clever idea, but what is making sure they take the drugs?
Who is making sure of that with the current setup?
Yes, not the pronoun but a person with the unlikely name of Who is making sure of that with the current setup.
But in all seriousness, I imagine the person currently dispensing the drugs is performing this role, making sure the person takes the drugs before moving on to the next person. Unless it's so bad they just have the drugs spread out on a table and they tell the people to just take what they need.
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Why should they make sure? This is a prison, not a mental institution. If a diabetic prisoner does not want to take his insulin, that's his problem.
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Why should they make sure? This is a prison, not a mental institution. If a diabetic prisoner does not want to take his insulin, that's his problem.
An awful lot of prison inmates are on drugs to control mental health issues. You really don't want a guy deciding not to take his meds for schizophrenia and having a psychotic break in the middle of the cafeteria.
Also, if a diabetic doesn't take his Glyburide (insulin is injected, so probably can't be administered by the machine... I don't imagine prisoners are given unsupervised access to needles), and goes into a diabetic coma, he's then admitted to the hospital on the public dime. We *still* have to ta
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An awful lot of prison inmates are on drugs to control mental health issues. You really don't want a guy deciding not to take his meds for schizophrenia and having a psychotic break in the middle of the cafeteria.
Is that what happens when the insanity defense fails (or isn't attempted) - they get sent to normal prison but given drugs to control their insanity? Doesn't seem right....
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An awful lot of prison inmates are on drugs to control mental health issues. You really don't want a guy deciding not to take his meds for schizophrenia and having a psychotic break in the middle of the cafeteria.
Is that what happens when the insanity defense fails (or isn't attempted) - they get sent to normal prison but given drugs to control their insanity? Doesn't seem right....
Insanity defense only works if you're insane enough that you cannot tell right from wrong. If you can tell right from wrong, but you don't have the impulse control to avoid doing something just because you know it's wrong, you still go to prison.
Or, if your misdeeds were not directly motivated by your insanity at all... say, your psychiatric condition was adequately controlled by medication, but you got drunk and ran a red light and killed someone (voluntary manslaughter). Or maybe your condition was not
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Flushed down the toilet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pharmaceutical regulations require that if medication is prepared for a patient and he or she can't be reached, it's deemed undeliverable and must be destroyed. The leftovers are typically flushed down the toilet or incinerated.
It should be illegal to flush medication down the toilet. Sewage often gets dumped unprocessed into waterways (especially when it is raining) and potent prescription medications can have significant effects when let loose in the world. It has gotten to the point where most drinking water in the USA not only has rocket fuel in it even after processing, but also antibiotics. If you don't think that will have serious repercussions, you're not thinking.
Re:Flushed down the toilet? (Score:5, Informative)
Flushing drugs down the toilet isn't the problem. The problem is that a large portion of many medications taken are simply peed away. Good luck telling people not to urinate in the toilet when they are taking antibiotics or birth control pills.
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A study in LA in 2005 (sorry don't have the source) showed small amounts progesterone in the drinking water. Whether from people flushing or simply urinating the hormone away, I don't know. But such studies explain why my wife is only drinking filtered water during her pregnancy.
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Most filtered water is not better nor worse than tap water. A lot of the bottling facilities get their water from municipal water systems!
Well the taste is certainly different. And if the tap water tastes so bad that I can't drink it, I'm probably not going to get a sufficient amount of water.
And although our water system repeatedly tells us that brown muddy water is "safe to drink", I really find this impossible to believe.
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Most filtered water is not better nor worse than tap water. A lot of the bottling facilities get their water from municipal water systems!
He didn't day that she was drinking bottled water, but filtered water. I don't know about the OP, but generally when people say filtered water they mean that they buy a filter and run the water through the filter themselves. If they mean water from a bottling facility they usually say "bottled water".
Additionally, I would like to know where you have seen anything saying that filtered water is basically the same as tap. I have seen lots of reports that bottled water is basically the same as tap (but then I
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Additionally, I would like to know where you have seen anything saying that filtered water is basically the same as tap. I have seen lots of reports that bottled water is basically the same as tap (but then I knew that before they started doing all the reports).
Most bottled water is essentially filtered tap water, some more directly than others.
I can very honestly say the water in my house is filtered - it goes through a house level filter I replace every three months. But that filter isn't as effective as a reverse osmosis system. Mine gets rid of quite a few things, but not all by any means.
I'd say my water is 'essentially tap', it only goes through an activated charcoal filter and a softener*.
*To save my appliances more than for taste.
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Look at the back of any aquifina bottle (and a few others). It says "from municipal water source" which is tap water.
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"Additionally, I would like to know where you have seen anything saying that filtered water is basically the same as tap." Look at the back of any aquifina bottle (and a few others). It says "from municipal water source" which is tap water.
That would be "bottled water" not "filtered water". See, if it doesn't say "filtered" it isn't filtered. Usually "filtered water" is actually run through a filter at the location where it is consumed, although some bottled water is also advertised as filtered.
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Flushing drugs down the toilet isn't the problem. The problem is that a large portion of many medications taken are simply peed away.
The problem is that people aren't partying hard enough!
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Flushing drugs down the toilet isn't the problem. The problem is that a large portion of many medications taken are simply peed away.
Wrong. Those half-processed medications are distributed by their very nature. They are A problem, but they are not THE problem; concentrations of completely unprocessed drugs caused by flushing the tablets which are designed to stay together for a time before they break down, and which are designed to break down in the gut and not in the sewer, are far more serious. It's much like heavy metal contamination; over time small, distributed concentrations of heavy metals will actually be fixed by mycelium (makes
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The FDA and EPA are aware of the problem of powerful drugs entering the water supply, see http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/ [epa.gov] and http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm101653.htm [fda.gov]. Aside from certain classes and types of drugs, the FDA recommends that most drugs be mixed with regular solid waste for disposal, not flushed down the toilet (the mixing with solid waste is to prevent children and pets from accidently ingesting the drugs by rendering them unpalatable). The FDA had list of classes of drugs that
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That's right. All these prisoners who flush their medications down the toilet should be put in prison.
Oh, wait...
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it's the prison administration flushing the meds, not the prisoners.
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Now, taking the precautions and failing to do any actual research to determine if such precautions are warranted is quite stupid. But we've already had problems with antibiotics creating antibiotic-resistant diseases (penicillin in the dog food/water/etc.), so assuming that antibiotics in the water are a bad thing is probably a good assumption.
extra income for Corrections! (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok.. I am only being SEMI snarky here after thinking about this...
They ought to make some extra revenue by selling the tech to Japan. While getting a doctor's Rx out of a central machine would probably tick off Americans, the Japanese would have no trouble with it at all... think of everything they buy through those machines already!
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I sure as hell wouldn't want my drugs coming from a machine. I can't count the number of times I hit "mountain dew" and get "coke".
If I get the wrong stuff at the pharmacy it's pretty simple "excuse me, here's the pills you gave, here's the prescription, they don't match".
Now, wrong stuff at the vending machine:
1. call phone number
2. stay on hold
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I'd be surprised if they don't already have this in Japan.
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Having people stand around counting pills is just stupid. That's what this is, an automated pill-counter hooked up to a database so individualized medicine packets can be packaged at a high rate.
No, it has nothing to do with vending machines where you would presumably put in some money and select a drug. All the people riffing on the inte
Obligatory Futurama Reference (Score:2)
*slips 1000$ bill in "Refreshing Crack!" vending machine*
*crack tube stays stuck in vending machine coil*
"No! Don't leave me hanging man!!!"
Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference (Score:5, Funny)
slips 1000$ bill in "Refreshing Crack!" vending machine
I was about to comment that a rock will only set you back $20, but then I remembered how much a vending machine charged me for a soda recently.
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Me? A Futurama geek? Noooo...
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yea, except the pyxis is designed to be used by doctors, not patients, not a small difference.
You'll need... (Score:2)
A truck full of quarters... Unless it only dispenses generics.
Not the First (Score:2)
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Already here in Canada (Score:1)
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I think I know a few people who would like to be incarcerated under such a system.
Loss of Privilege (Score:2)
Imagine what the inmates would do to anyone who made them "lose" this privilege!
This is for criminals? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is for criminals? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would guess that these machines are probably NOT located in the game room, exercise room, or other common area where prisoners congregate. Even if secure room by themselves all you need is a normal guard to watch, which I am guessing is a lot cheaper than putting a pharmacist on staff.
Re:This is for criminals? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Prison guards, on average, aren't poorly paid at all.
They aren't mall rent a cops.
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Prison guards, on average, aren't poorly paid at all. They aren't mall rent a cops.
HAHA, what prisons are you talking about?
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Pretty much all of them? Prison guard isn't a minimum wage job; mall security pretty much IS, at least in my area.
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"Even if secure room by themselves all you need is a normal guard to watch, which I am guessing is a lot cheaper than putting a pharmacist on staff."
Your assignment for the week is to watch seasons 1-6 of Oz and come back with a full 5,000 word essay on why your sentence wouldn't apply.
And before you say "Oz is just HBO TV" I've been through the prison system and Oz is pretty goddamned close to what Parchman, MS is like.
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Even if secure room by themselves all you need is a normal guard to watch, which I am guessing is a lot cheaper than putting a pharmacist on staff.
I dunno what prison's you've been to. But here they have a normal officer hand out the medication, not a pharmacist.
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Great (Score:3, Insightful)
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Point? Determining whether a given substance should be restricted or not, is obviously a line-drawing exercise, and reasonable people may disagree with the determinations one way or the other.
But, the majority of prescription-only substances are not psychotropic in nature, and the majority are not particularly susceptible to addiction. In most cases, the substances are restricted because the dosage needs to be controlled carefully (because of toxicity-level concerns) or because there is a high likelihood of
Instead of wasting their money on vending machines (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe the department could spring for some more coroners & staff. My brother lived in SB county until he passed away in May from an apparent heart attack. I say apparent because we still, 3 months later, don't have a death certificate, even though an autopsy was done and the body cremated within a few days of his death.
Re:Instead of wasting their money on vending machi (Score:2)
The vending machines are cheaper than the people. That's the whole point.
(Or at least, that's what the marketing materials say. They probably don't have sufficient personnel to do a proper cost-benefit analysis, or evaluate the product for suitability.)
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It's not SB County's fault. SB has had some bad budget cuts recently. I learned a couple of weeks ago that if I *REALLY* wanted to all it would take is a fully-loaded glock .40 to take out the ENTIRE active police force in SB and Redlands. Redlands only has a total of 4 cops working at any given time, SB only has about 8. Assuming I have a double-stack 15 round magazine for the Glock .40, one shot one kill is all it takes.
You probably haven't gotten a DC yet because of the budget cuts. Just keep pressing th
Interesting Product (Score:1)
This is a fairly neat concept, and it seems like it would have applications beyond the prison system. One idea I had would be to put something similar in retirement homes or communities. Obviously it wouldn't work for people who are bedridden or senile, but it would probably be great for older people who can't drive down to a pharmacy, due to bad eyesight or limited mobility to get pills, but who can still walk down the hall or down the block. Since it's a vending machine, you can come when you want to g
Old News... (Score:2)
There are drug vending machines all over the US dispensing drug containing items like coffee, coca cola, red bull, mountain dew,...
already being done in nursing homes (Score:3, Interesting)
Most mail delivery pharmacies use them too, the concept is called "central fill" where pharmacies transmit rx's electronic to a central facility that has a few very high volume filling robots. The pharmacists there verify like 60 to 70 rx's per hour. You'd think pharmacists hate an assembly line job but they're actually the most sought after jobs. No sick, pissed off patients to deal with.
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The real irony is that these kinds of places need pharmacists at all. The machines should be able to just fill and check their own prescriptions. If a patient has any potential drug conflicts then the system would flag them for review by a pharmacist, of course, but that would happen before prescriptions are filled. It seems like the only reason we have pharmacists in these sorts of places is due to outdated regulations. No pharmacist was involved in getting the right pills to the pharmacy, so why is on
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So, suppose you have a machine that takes a picture of the pill and compares it to a library? Even better, why not have manufacturers print barcodes on as many pills as possible? Pills also have specifications for weight and color, and these can be very easy to test.
Maybe you also have a two-person check process every time you fill a hopper as well.
And how does the Pharmacist know that the pill that matches the normal color and shape of the pills that were prescribed actually contains the drug on the bott
food vending machines (Score:2)
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There's no "respect for law" if it only consists of capricious infliction of violence by sadistic corrections officers. You, Mr. Anonymous Coward, appear to have fallen into the mental trap of considering people to be something less than human just because they wear the label of "convicted criminal". Never mind that what is considered "criminal" at any particular time is itself rather arbitrary and often the result of political expedience/opportunism. Never mind that punishment is only considered to be one
Bad Article Headline/Summary (Score:1)
Nice job using the ambiguous, emotionally-laden term "drug" in the headline to describe perfectly-normal medications that just so happen to be used by prison inmates, knowing that the immediate knee-jerk reaction of most people when they seem a conjunction of "drug" and "criminal" that something illicit and dangerous must be occurring.
And do we really need the snarky, condescending tone of "If you guessed X you win a prize!" in the article summary? The inevitable, predictable "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag
Be afwaid... be vewy afwaid! (Score:2)
So how much would it cost to OD on OTC meds? (Score:2)
This is another brilliant piece of crap thought up by people who don't think of the implications PERIOD.
If it took me a second to come up with a scenario, I would grant a prisoner with nothing better to do all day to come up with a complete escape plan once he's outside the prison on the way to a hospital.
medications dispenser (Score:2)
We've already got that here. It's known as the NHS [wikipedia.org], only the 'medications dispensers' are called doctors and it's they that do the typing.
--
Bill Gates' hurricane stopper [techflash.com]
The most amazing part (Score:3, Interesting)
The last paragraph is the most notable part of the whole article, as far as I'm concerned!
Casino royal (Score:2)
If the casinos were in charge of making the vending machines, I would say that we have a chance...but it wont be long before the inmates carry special hand made tazers (with 9v batteries) to give jolts to trick the machine into giving whatever the randomness of the chip is a prescription.
I also take it that this should not include the inmates that are too weak to actually go get their meds??? Ask another inmate to get your meds, might not only get them stolen from you, but a serious beating for implying som
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Yea, cause county jail is full of hardcore criminals.
You've seen one too many tv shows.
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When was the last time you went to county jail....can you even say you know what
it looks like inside???
You can still have a population of just under 1000 depending on the county,
as state is more in the 10s of thousands.
As for sending voltage through the machine,
read up a bit on KENO and one arm bandit machines and
how certain would be hax0rs were getting the machine to pay out by giving
jolts at the right time in the cycle...!