DUBOIS – The DuBois City police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its eighth opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by allowing them to get rid of potentially dangerous, expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
DuBois City police will take back unwanted drugs from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. April 26 at Martin’s Grocery Store, located at 22 Hoover Ave., DuBois. The service is free and anonymous with no questions asked. However, the DEA cannot accept liquids, needles or sharps and only pills and patches.
Last October, Americans turned in 324 tons, or more than 647,000 pounds, of prescription drugs at more than 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners. When combined with the previous seven collections at Take Back events, the DEA and its partners have taken in more than 3.4 million pounds, or more than 1,700 tons, of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines languishing in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs, according to a press release from police.
Studies have shown that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In additions, Americans are now advised that their usual methods of disposing of unused medicines – flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash – pose potential safety and health hazards.
The DEA is currently in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010. This amends the Controlled Substance Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or their family member or pet owner) of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long-term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.
