(a) Legal prescription medications are an integral part of health care and can help people live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Notwithstanding programs that have improved access to health insurance and health care services, many San Franciscans still lack access to prescription medications.
(b) According to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2016, 18% of uninsured non-elderly adults nationally did not obtain, or postponed obtaining, needed prescription medications due to cost.
(c) Neighborhood health care centers play a significant role in San Francisco by providing care to patients who do not qualify for subsidized insurance, people who are between jobs and cannot afford to purchase health insurance, and recent immigrants who have not lived in the United States long enough to qualify for subsidized insurance programs.
(d) Division 116 of the California Health and Safety Code authorizes counties to establish voluntary drug repository and distribution programs for distributing surplus medications to low-income people in need of prescription medications. In enacting Division 116, the Legislature intended that the health and safety of Californians be protected and promoted through such programs, while reducing unnecessary waste at licensed health and care facilities, by allowing those facilities to donate unused and unexpired medications.
(e) A surplus medication collection and distribution intermediary is an entity that is licensed by the State to facilitate the donation of medications to or transfer of medications between participating entities in a voluntary drug repository and distribution program. Since 2015, a Bay Area company named Sirum has been licensed to serve this function, and has facilitated the transfer of enough prescriptions medications to allow 150,000 patients to receive medicine they need to be healthy, and has prevented at least 241,000 pounds of waste by eliminating the need to produce new medicines.
(f) Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Sonoma County have established surplus medication collection and distribution programs that authorize county-owned pharmacies to dispense medications donated through those programs.
(Added by Ord. 247-18, File No. 180804, App. 10/26/2018, Eff. 11/26/2018)