Committee backs technical updates to San Francisco's drug‑disposal stewardship ordinance

San Francisco Environment staff presented technical amendments to the city’s Safe Drug Disposal Stewardship Ordinance (file referenced in testimony as 2023‑0156), which governs producer‑funded collection and disposal programs. Joseph Piasecki, policy and public affairs coordinator, summarized the program's scope — stewardship organizations Inmar Intelligence and Med Project operate 62 drop‑off kiosks and ~203 mail‑back sites that together provide roughly $1,000,000 of services annually and have collected about 55 tons of medicines since 2017.

Piasecki described three main amendment areas: clarifying disposal‑facility compliance standards and permitting requirements (including a 12‑month no‑notice‑of‑violation standard), tightening administrative controls (written approval for disposal‑facility changes), and expanding annual reporting to include more details on final disposal. He also noted the federal DEA requirement that collected drugs be incinerated to prevent diversion: "Once drugs are put into a kiosk or mailed back, they cannot be sorted and everything must be incinerated," he said.

Supervisors pressed staff on kiosk location equity and participation constraints. Department staff and program operators explained that DEA rules limit kiosk hosts to entities with a pharmacy license so some districts have fewer eligible hosts; to address gaps they are asking stewardship operators to increase mail‑in sites and run collection events. Public comment raised concerns about trusting police stations as kiosk hosts and about whether some medicines could be reused rather than incinerated; staff noted federal and public‑health constraints on reuse.

Outcome: The committee voted unanimously to send the item to the full board with a positive recommendation. The department will return with any required staff reports and updated regulatory language.