PORTLAND -- More than 300 packets of unwanted and expired medications are being opened and sorted today, marking a new phase of the state's first-in-the-nation pharmaceutical mail-back program.

Officials with University of Maine's Center on Aging and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency are opening the packets and counting and sorting the medications to monitor the project's effectiveness. The medications will ultimately be sent to a hazardous waste incinerator.

The Center on Aging and other organizations began a pilot mail-back program in May by placing envelopes in 11 pharmacies in four counties. The envelopes are addressed to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which makes sure controlled substances such as prescription painkillers are properly tracked and handled safely.

Based on the success of the pilot program, the officials said, pre-paid envelopes will be places in pharmacies statewide this fall.

The effort is paid for with a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a matching grant from the state. Officials hope to keep tons of medications from being thrown into the trash or flushed down the toilet, which can contaminate waterways and threaten the health of wildlife and people. Ridding home medicine cabinets of old pharmaceuticals also can prevent children or thieves from getting their hands on prescription drugs, and reduce the chance that patients mistakenly take the wrong drugs.

Information about the program and the Center on Aging is available by calling 1-866-637-9743, or on the center's Web site at www.umaine.edu/mainecenteronaging.

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