Falmouth Police Collect 463 Pounds Of Unused Drugs

FALMOUTH, MA — Falmouth police said they disposed of 463 pounds of unused prescription drugs during a national take back event over the weekend. The DEA organized the take back Saturday, held at police agencies across the country.

If you missed the Falmouth take back, you can still drop off unwanted drugs at the police station lobby 24 hours a day in the green disposal box. Officials urge residents with unused prescription drugs to dispose of them that way to prevent the drugs from falling into children's hands or contaminating local water supplies.

DEA officials cited a recent national survey that claimed 6.4 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. Most of those drugs are obtained from home medicine cabinets, according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

"The abuse of these prescription drugs has fueled the nation's opioid epidemic, which has led to the highest rate of overdose deaths this country has ever seen," Robert Patterson, acting administrator for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said in a statement. "This is a crisis that must be addressed from multiple angles. Educating the public and removing these medications from households across the United State prevents misuse where it often starts."

The DEA said its national take back effort in October netted 456 tons of drugs.

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