Got Drugs? Turn Them In At Disposal Event

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is this Saturday, April 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

More than 5,100 sites nationwide have joined the effort that seeks to prevent pill abuse and theft. While none are currently scheduled in East Greenwich, there are collection sites nearby — at the North Kingstown Police Department, 8166 Post Road; the Wickford State Police Barracks, 7875 Post Road, North Kingstown; the Warwick Police Department, 99 Veterans Memorial Drive; the West Warwick Police Department, 1162 Main St.; and the West Warwick Senior Center, 145 Washington St. For the full list of sites, visit www.dea.gov and click on the “Got Drugs?” banner at the top of the home page. The site is continuously updated with new locations.

Government, community, public health and law enforcement officials at the sites will collect expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs that are potentially dangerous if left in the family’s medicine cabinet. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are on the rise. More Americans  abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens and heroin combined, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Studies show that individuals who abuse prescription drugs often obtained them from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. Many do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away, both potential safety and health hazards.

“The overwhelmig public response to DEA's first nationwide Take-Back event last fall not only rid homes of potentially harmful prescription drugs, but was an unprecedented opportunity to educate everyone about the growing prescription drug abuse problem," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a release. “Studies have shown that, for many, prescription drugs are the very first drugs they abuse — and all too often they aren’t the last. That is why we are committed to helping Americans keep their homes safe by ridding their medicine cabinets of expired, unused and unwanted drugs.”

Last September, the program collected more than 242,000 pounds of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites.

“I encourage every American to take advantage of this valuable opportunity to safely dispose of unused, un-needed, or expired prescription drugs,” Gil Kerlikowkse, the director of National Drug Control Policy, said. “Preventing these readily available and potentially deadly drugs from being diverted and misused is something each and every one of us can do to help reduce the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is harming so many Americans.”