Hinsdale Police to Participate in National Drug Take-Back Day Next Weekend

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is next Saturday, and the Hinsdale Police Department is doing its part in participating.

Oct. 22 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., according to a release from the department, the Hinsdale police will be collecting expired, unwanted and unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs and destroying them.

The Department ensures all drugs and containers will be incinerated, so, since the drug take-back program is anonymous, participants don’t need to worry about taking labels off of drug containers or switching containers before bringing their drugs to the police.

The program is entirely free.

This will be the DEA’s 12th annual Drug Take-Back Day. During the May 2016 event, according to DEA statistics, partners around the U.S. collected 447 tons of pills.

The DEA creates these events in an effort to relieve prescription drug abuse in the country, since rates of drug abuse are at record-highs. Opioids especially, the DEA states, are used medically but become addictive and, when patients don’t have access to or can’t afford the prescription drugs anymore, they turn to illegal drugs like heroin.

The majority of prescription drug abusers report in surveys that they get their drugs from friends and family. Americans understand that cleaning out old prescription drugs from medicine cabinets, kitchen drawers, and bedside tables reduces accidents, thefts, and the misuse and abuse of these medicines, including the opioid painkillers that accounted for 20,808 drug overdoses—78 a day—in 2014 (the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Eight out of 10 new heroin users began by abusing prescription painkillers and moved to heroin when they could no longer obtain or afford those painkillers.

The Hinsdale Police Department will not be collecting liquid products, intravenous solutions, syringes, needles, inhalers or air cylinders Oct. 22.

The Chicago Recovery Alliance does offer free, legal syringe exchanges as well as healthcare assistance, HIV antibody and hepatitis A, B and C testing and addiction treatment daily. Dates, times and locations are available here.

Read more about National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on the DEA’s website or feel free to contact Hinsdale Police Officer Michael Coughlin at 630-789-7084.

Nearby sites collecting drugs Oct. 22:

• Westmont Police Department: 500 N. Cass Ave., Westmont, IL
• La Grange Park Police: 447 N. Catherine, La Grange Park, IL
• Village of Westchester (lobby): 10300 Roosevelt Rd., Westchester, IL
• La Grange Police Department (front lobby): 304 W. Burlington Ave., La Grange, IL
• Countryside Police Department: 5550 S. East Ave., Countryside, IL

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