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Darke County Drug Task Force...
Taking back unwanted
Prescription Drugs
Event: Darke County Family Health, April 28
Greenville, Ohio – On April 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Darke County
Drug Task Force along with Darke County Family Health, Darke County
Solid Waste and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the
public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding
their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted
prescription drugs. Bring your medications for disposal to Darke
County Family Health at 5735 Meeker Rd. The service is free and
anonymous, no questions asked.
Last October, Americans turned in 377,080 pounds—188.5 tons—of
prescription drugs at over 5,300 sites operated by the DEA and nearly
4,000 state and local law enforcement partners. In its three
previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in almost a
million pounds—nearly 500 tons—of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health
issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly
susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug
abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental
poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a
majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and
friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition,
Americans are now 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.
Four days after the first event, Congress passed the Secure and
Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled
Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” 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. DEA is drafting regulations to implement the Act, a
process that can take as long as 24 months. Until new regulations
are in place, local law enforcement agencies like Darke County Drug
Task Force and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug
take-back events every few months.
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