On Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the U. S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) and local law enforcement agencies will give the
public its 17th opportunity in eight years to prevent pill abuse and theft
by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted
prescription drugs. The service is free and anonymous with no questions asked.
Click
here to locate the collection site nearest you. Collection sites in North Oaks
Health System’s service area include: Target in Hammond and Walmart
in Amite, sponsored by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office; Independence
Town Hall, sponsored by the Independence Police Department; and the Walker
Police Department.
“We strongly encourage the community to take part in this initiative
by cleaning out your medicine cabinets and disposing of any prescription
drugs at a designated drop-off location near you,” urges North Oaks
Clinical Pharmacy Manager Jamie Covington. “Rates of prescription
drug misuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high – as are the number
of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to misuse of these drugs. Research
shows that the majority of misused and abused prescription drugs are obtained
from family and friends or stolen from the home medicine cabinet.”
The DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day addresses a vital
public safety and health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets
are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. In addition, Americans
are now being advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused
medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the
trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.
In the fall of 2018, Americans turned in nearly 458 tons (914,236 pounds)
of prescription drugs at more than 5,800 sites operated by the DEA and
almost 4,770 of its state and local law enforcement partners. Overall,
the DEA and its law enforcement partners have now surpassed their 10 million
pound goal and collected nearly 11 million pounds of unused, unwanted
or expired prescription medications over the course of 16 successful DEA
National Prescription Drug Take Back events.