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Ritter Signs Bill allowing Unused Medicine to go to Haiti

Wednesday, April 14 2010

KDVR FOX 31
By: Eli Stokols
April 14th, 2010

DENVER - Gov. Bill Ritter Tuesday signed into law a bill drafted in the early days of the legislative session in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

In light of Haiti's obvious need for doctors and medication in the disaster's aftermath, Sen. Lois Tochtrop, herself a nurse, introduced legislation that would allow Colorado clinics to bypass pharmacological rules that mandated that any unused medication be disposed of if its packaging had been opened or tampered with, no matter how many pills went unused.

"It's something that Project Cure, Red Cross and Doctors without Borders are interested in doing," Tochtrop said when the bill was first introduced. "There are many countries in the world, the Third World, that would appreciate having these medications and the doctors to hand them out."