Bill Text: NJ A2089 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes the "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program" for the collection and disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines; authorizes use of recycling tax revenues for program; establishes Corporation Business Tax Credit for companies providing disposal.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-11 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee [A2089 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A2089-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman JOAN M. QUIGLEY
District 32 (Bergen and Hudson)
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington and Camden)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman McKeon
SYNOPSIS
Establishes the "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program" for the collection and disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines; authorizes use of recycling tax revenues for program; establishes Corporation Business Tax credit for companies providing disposal.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing a collection and disposal program for unused prescription drugs and other medicines, and supplementing Title 13 of the Revised Statutes and P.L.1945, c.162 (C.54:10A-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that the improper disposal of unused prescription drugs has resulted in the detection of various pharmaceutical products and derivatives in the waters of the State; that research indicates these products and derivatives in the water may be contributing to the mutation of fish and reduced effectiveness of antibiotics in animals and people; that the recreational use of unused pharmaceutical products by young people has skyrocketed so that such misuse is the preferred recreational drug use of more than half of the young people using drugs; that, although no safe disposal program can fully solve these problems, both may be positively addressed by the proper and safe collection and disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines; and that it is therefore important to establish a program for the convenient, safe, and secure collection of unused prescription drugs and other medicines, and the proper and safe disposal of these drugs and medicines.
2. As used in this act:
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Secure collection site" means a receptacle, the contents of which can be accessed only by authorized municipal law enforcement officials, placed within a municipal police station at a location frequented and staffed by municipal law enforcement officers so as to minimize unsupervised or unobserved access to the receptacle and its contents. A "secure collection site" may include, but is not necessarily limited to, a refurbished and locked United States Postal Service mailbox.
3. a. The Department of Environmental Protection, with the cooperation of municipal police, shall develop and establish the "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program" for the secure collection and proper, safe disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines. The department shall contact each municipality in the State with a municipal police force and station, and determine with each police station and appropriate municipality how secure collection sites shall be established and the proper, safe disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines shall be implemented. This determination and implementation shall include, but not necessarily require, consideration of the use of refurbished United States Postal Service mail boxes for the secure collection of the unused prescription drugs and other medicines.
b. The municipality may fund any municipal expenditures for the implementation of the program established pursuant to subsection a. of this section from moneys made available to the municipality as direct recycling grants pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1981, c.278 (C.13:1E-96) from the revenues of the recycling tax established pursuant to the "Recycling Enhancement Act," P.L.2007, c.311 (C.13:1E-96.2 et seq.). The "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program" shall be considered part of a municipality's recycling program for the purposes of section 5 of P.L.1981, c.278.
c. The department shall establish with pharmacies throughout the State a public education program concerning the program established pursuant to this section and shall provide each pharmacy with signs or other appropriate materials to alert the public to the establishment of this program and how unused prescription drugs and other medicines may be dropped off for the proper and safe disposal of the drugs and medicines.
d. The department, in consultation with the Department of Law and Public Safety, shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), any rules and regulations necessary for the implementation of this act.
4. a. Each municipal police station in the State shall provide a secure collection site in the municipal police station for the secure collection of unused prescription drugs and other medicines pursuant to the program established in section 3 of this act. The municipal police station shall post a sign, at the door of the police station used by the public to enter that station and at the collection site in the police station, providing notice of the secure collection site and the types of drugs and other medicines that may be dropped off at the secure collection site.
b. The municipal police station shall monitor the volume of unused prescription drugs and other medicines dropped off at the police station, and shall establish, in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection, a schedule for the proper and safe disposal of these drugs and other medicines through supervised incineration at a proper disposal facility or by any other method developed and implemented pursuant to section 5 of this act.
5. a. Simultaneously to developing and establishing the program pursuant to sections 3 and 4 of this act, the department shall enter into discussions and negotiations with pharmaceutical companies in the State, to identify, develop, and implement options and methods for proper and safe disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines, including, but not necessarily limited to, supervised incineration of the dropped-off drugs and medicines, municipal/private partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, or public use of private facilities to provide for the proper and safe disposal of the drugs and medicines or reuse of previously prescribed prescription drugs that are in useable condition.
b. The department shall determine the effect on operating permits issued pursuant to the "Air Pollution Control (1954)," P.L.1954, c.212 (C.26:2C-1 et seq.), and other permits issued by the department for incineration or other types of disposal in connection with the program established pursuant to section 3 of this act and shall properly address any effects so as not to penalize good faith efforts to assist with the implementation of the program, including, but not necessarily limited to, negotiation of emissions trading credits.
6. a. A taxpayer participating in the safe and proper disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines pursuant to section 5 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be allowed a credit against the tax imposed pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1945, c.162 (C.54:10A-5) in an amount equal to 100% of the cost of disposing of the unused prescription drugs and other medicines during privilege periods beginning on or after January 1 next following the date of enactment of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), except as otherwise provided in subsections b., c., and d. of this section.
b. The priority for the application of credit allowed pursuant to this section against the tax imposed for a privilege period pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1945, c.162, in relation to the application of any other credit allowed against the tax shall be prescribed by the Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury. Credits allowable pursuant to this section shall be applied in the order of the credits' privilege periods. The amount of the credits applied under this section against the tax imposed pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1945, c.162, for a tax year shall not exceed 50% of the tax liability otherwise due and shall not reduce the tax liability to an amount less than the statutory minimum provided in subsection (e) of section 5 of P.L.1945, c.162.
c. Except as provided in subsection d. of this section, the amount of tax year credit otherwise allowable under this section which cannot be applied for the tax year due to the limitations of subsection b. of this section may be carried over, if necessary, to the five privilege periods following a credit's privilege period.
d. A taxpayer may not carry over any amount of credit or credits allowed under subsection a. of this section to a privilege period during which a corporate acquisition with respect to which the taxpayer was a target corporation occurred or during which the taxpayer was a party to a merger or a consolidation, or to any subsequent privilege period, if the credit was allowed for a privilege period prior to the year of acquisition, merger or consolidation, except that if in the case of a corporate merger or corporate consolidation the taxpayer can demonstrate, through the submission of a copy of the plan of merger or consolidation and such other evidence as may be required by the director, the identity of the constituent corporation which was the acquiring person, a credit allowed to the acquiring person may be carried over by the taxpayer. As used in this subsection, "acquiring person" means the constituent corporation the stockholders of which own the largest proportion of the total voting power in the surviving or consolidated corporation after the merger or consolidation.
7. No person, pharmaceutical company, or any employee thereof, shall be liable in any civil proceeding as a result of any act of commission or omission by such person arising out of and in the course of participation in, or assistance with, in good faith, the implementation of the program established pursuant to this act, including, but not necessarily limited to, the drop off of unused prescription drugs or other medicines, their secure collection, their transportation for proper and safe disposal, or the proper and safe disposal thereof. The grant of immunity provided by this section shall not extend to an individual who sells or attempts to sell any prescription drugs or other medicines collected through this program.
8. This act shall take effect immediately, except section 6 shall take effect on January 1 next following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill directs the Department of Environmental Protection to establish the "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program" for the secure collection and proper, safe disposal of unused prescription drugs and other medicines, by developing and implementing with municipal police and State pharmaceutical companies the safe, secure collection of unused prescription drugs and other medicines at municipal police stations and the proper and safe disposal of those drugs and medicines by pharmaceutical companies. The bill authorizes the use of municipal recycling tax moneys to cover municipal costs related to the program and establishes a Corporation Business Tax credit for the costs of disposal for any company that provides for the proper and safe disposal of the drugs and other medicines. Finally, the bill provides civil and criminal liability to any person in good faith participating in or assisting with the implementation of the "Safe Drop Off of Drugs Program," except if the person is found to have sold to attempted to sell illegally any of the prescription drugs or medicines collected pursuant to the program.
