Today is being celebrated across the country as National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Locally, unused or out-of-day prescription drugs can be dropped off everyday at Walgreen Pharmacy, the Carter County Detention Center, where there is a drop-off box in the lobby, and Monday through Friday at the Elizabethton Police Station.
However, the motivation for the Prescription Drug Take Back Day is to prevent opioid addictions and overdoses by disposing of expired or unused prescription drugs in a safe way.
It is extremely beneficial for the community to offer a safe event and safe place for citizens to drop off drugs without their names on them.
The majority of the 6.2 million Americans who abuse prescription drugs obtain them from family, often in their medicine cabinets, according to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Having a designated day for the community to clear these drugs off people’s shelves can prevent any possible future addictions or accidental overdoses, which will positively impact not only the Elizabethton community, but every community in this nation.
Improperly disposing of prescription drugs also causes environmental problems. According to the Mother Nature Network, more than a 100 different pharmaceuticals have been found in drinking water supplies for roughly 41 million Americans. By offering a safe disposal for those drugs, the environment will also be positively impacted.
The last Take Back Day in this country brought in more than 900,000 pounds of unused or expired prescription medication. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by DEA since the fall of 2010 to 10,878,950 pounds.
We encourage all Carter Countians to clean out their medicine cabinets and participate in this critically important day in combating the opioid crisis. By safely eliminating these prescription drugs from our homes, we are each doing our part to keep our communities and loved ones safe. If you are unable to participate today, remember there are drug take back boxes in our communities that can be used at any time.
Items that will not be accepted in drop-off boxes include:
— Needles (sharps)
— Asthma inhalers
— Mercury thermometers
— Iodine containing medications
— Illicit drugs or substances (including marijuana which is still a Schedule 1 drug under federal law), and any prescription medications obtained illegally.
With certain precautions, most, BUT NOT ALL, medications can be thrown in the trash. These include prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs in pills, liquids, drops, patches, creams, and inhalers. Look at the package insert of your medication to see if special instructions exist for disposal.
Prescription medications play an important role in the health of millions of Americans. However, expired medications or unused drugs often stay in the back of cabinets for months or even years. These expired drugs can pose significant health hazards to toddlers, teens, and even pets who may inadvertently consume these medications. Some medications are so potent that even one dose could be fatal if accidentally ingested or even touched.
There are other important safety issues:
— Misuse of prescription narcotic drugs (opioids) is a major public health concern. In fact, over 130 people die each day from opioid (narcotic) overdoses, according to the CDC.
— In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (prescription opioids, heroin, illicit fentanyl) were 6 times high than the number of deaths seen in 1999.
— A U.S. government review shows that more than half of all people who first misuse prescription drugs get them from their friends, relatives or simply take them without asking.
A 2018 report found that the number of children hospitalized for opioid poisoning increased by 3-fold between 1997 and 2012, and the largest overall increase was among toddlers and preschoolers, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. These statistics magnify the need for proper disposal of unused or expired prescription medications from the home to help prevent misuse — or accidental overdose — of dangerous drugs.
If not today, then sometime this week, take time to clean out your medicine cabinet and dispose of outdated and unused drugs. Your actions could save someone’s life.