what meds do you routinely crush?

Specialties Correctional

Published

Wondering what meds you routinely crush at your sites?

We don't give Benzos or opiates at our facility and we crush Seroquel, Wellbutrin and Trazadone. Wellbutrin burns pretty bad so we also float it.

We routinely crush all narcotics and Neurontin

Specializes in Pysch, Corrections, MedSurg.

We dont' crush any meds at are facility unless it is medical specific. I haven't come across an inmate yet that has been required to crush their meds. I don't even recall having the instrument to crush medications at our facility, either.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I just shadowed the med pass at the local jail last week and they crush any psych meds and narcotics, they try to avoid giving narcotics. The med nurse said basically the KOP meds end up being the main ones not crushed, they put the powder in the little clear med cup with water. That right there would be enough to keep me out of jail. I accidentally mistook a pepto bismol pill for a chewable one and it was the nastiest thing ever, I couldn't imagine having to take my meds crushed in a little water.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
That works, but there is sometimes powder residue, left in the cup, (if you put the powdered med in a cup of water). In that case they have to add more water to the cup, to get all of the med..It depends on how much time they have , to take the med.LOL I have approximately 110 inmates in my night medline, the officers, who do the mouth checks, usually want them to do the swallow,they look, & hit the road, routine.:chuckle

We use a pill crushing system, where the pill is placed in a plastic pouch,crushed via the crusher, then put in a souffle cup..There is minimal dust, but yes there is a concern,about breathing the dust....It's too bad any of then, have to be crushed

That is what they did at the jail I shadowed, the pills went into a plastic pouch and crused then put in the little cup with water, the inmates usually also had their own cups of water and could add more water to the little cup for any residue.

Tramadol is practically a narcotic. Some say it should have been deemed a Schedule II controlled substance. It is very active on the blackmarket. At our facilities it is counted and treated like a narc - which drives everyone crazy as the docs love to order it and the inmates love to request it.

Crushing meds in our facility (county jail) is extrememly rare. Careful observation of the inmates taking their meds (including mouth checks on all, looking in their cup if we are suspicous...) is done on all inmates taking medications. If an inmate is caught concealing a medication, we issue a violation, and discontinue the medication if safe to do so. if abrupt withdrawal is not safe, we obtain tapering orders from the prescriber.

Hello forum,

I work in 2 county jails in the Washington state area, and we avoid all narcotics for the most part, and float all narcotics, seroquel (very popular to sleep the time away), trazodone, wellbutrin (IR form of course), clonazepam, risperdal.... almost anything that we see a trend in cheeking we crush. The one I was suprised about was the wellbutrin - I quess they crush it up and snort it, they do that with seroquel as well. It never ceases to amaze me how many inmates I catch hoarding their meds on the first day of my work week. If I don't catch atleast one to 2 inmates palming/cheeking or otherwise hoarding meds, I think I am not paying good attention.

Be safe out there

Specializes in Corrections.

We crush all narcotics also.

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