Doctor recycles prescription drugs to the homeless

A prominent Canadian doctor has begun to recycle unused prescription drugs to homeless people in Ottawa because he says they could not afford them otherwise, CBC News has learned.

He and Dr. Ron MacCormick, an oncologist in Sydney, N.S., want provincial governments to establish regulations that would guide doctors who want to recycle unused prescription drugs that would otherwise be thrown out.

"I think it's a common sense issue where we could come up with common sense guidelines to direct this," Turnbull said.

Turnbull, who will become president of the Canadian Medical Association later this year, gives the unused drugs to patients at an inner city health centre in Ottawa.