Thursday, May 16, 2019

17th Annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day

Federal, state and local partners collect 937,443 pounds across the country
Americans nationwide did their part to drop off unused, unwanted or expired prescription medications during the DEA’s 16th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, with 6,258 sites across the country. Together with local, state and federal partners, DEA collected and destroyed 937,443 pounds —468.72 tons—of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs, making it a very successful event. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by DEA since the fall of 2010 to 11,816,393 pounds, or 5908.2 tons.  Locally the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office collected 18.2 lbs. of medication to be destroyed during this take-back day with 431 lbs. collected beginning in April of 2012. 

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is a day for every American, in every community across the country, to come together and do his or her part to fight the opioid crisis – simply by disposing of unwanted prescription medications from their medicine cabinets. This event brings us together with local, state and federal partners to fight the abuse of prescription drugs that is fueling the nation’s opioid epidemic.

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day events continue to remove ever-higher amounts of opioids and other medicines from the nation’s homes, where they could be stolen and abused by family members and visitors, including children and teens.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.

DEA launched its prescription drug take-back program when both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration advised the public that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—posed potential safety and health hazards.

Helping people to dispose of potentially harmful prescription drugs is just one way DEA is working to reduce the addiction and overdose deaths plaguing this country due to opioid medications.  Complete results for this DEA Take-Back Day are available at 
https://takebackday.dea.gov/sites/default/files/NTBI%2017%20Totals-April2019.pdf. DEA’s next Prescription Drug Take Back Day is October 26, 2019.

There is a permanent medication drop box available in the entryway of the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office in Keosauqua.  You can bring your pills and patches there to dispose of them safely during business hours no questions asked.  For non-controlled substances (including liquids and inhalers) you may dispose of those at Lee’s Pharmacy in Keosauqua.  If you have any questions please contact the Van Buren County SAFE Coalition at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017.

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