Delaware agencies go after prescription drugs

Got Drugs? That’s what several Delaware agencies along with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration want to know in order to collect unused and expired prescription drugs from your medicine cabinet.

Studies show that prescription drugs found at home in your medicine cabinet are often misused or abused. In order to prevent future abuse or illegal activity, state agencies will host Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 28th to collect as much as possible. Although people can take their own medications to be flushed down a toilet or thrown in the trash, experts say those methods can pose health and safety hazards to public and private water systems.

“Prescription drugs have been found in some Delaware water supplies where they may be accidentally ingested by humans,” said Rita Landgraf, Secretary of Delaware Health and Social Services. “The Take-Back Day is a coordinated and carefully regulated opportunity to dispose of unused, unwanted and unneeded medications. It also is consistent with DHSS’s commitment to addressing prescription drug abuse in Delaware.”

According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America, more than 2,000 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time every year. In fact, 137 deaths in 2009 were blamed on prescription drug misuse, according to reports from the Delaware Health Statistics Center.

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“Unused medications pose a threat to our children, our families and our environment,” said Governor Jack Markell. “The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is a safe way to dramatically decrease the amount of unused drugs in our medicine cabinets, homes and environment.”

People can hand over unused or unwanted medicine at 31 sites in all three counties.  To find a collection site near you, visit: www.dea.gov and click on “Got Drugs?”

Last year, nearly 5,000 pounds of prescription drugs were collected in Delaware during the October 2011 drug take-back event.

Got Drugs? That’s what several Delaware agencies along with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration want to know in order to collect unused and expired prescription drugs from your medicine cabinet.

 

Studies show that prescription drugs found at home in your medicine cabinet are often misused or abused.  In order to prevent future abuse or illegal activity, state agencies will host Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 28th to collect as much as possible.  Although people can take their own medications to be flushed down a toilet or thrown in the trash, experts say those methods can pose health and safety hazards to public and private water systems.

 

“Prescription drugs have been found in some Delaware water supplies where they may be accidentally ingested by humans,” said Rita Landgraf, Secretary of Delaware Health and Social Services (DHSS).  “The Take-Back Day is a coordinated and carefully regulated opportunity to dispose of unused, unwanted and unneeded medications.  It also is consistent with DHSS’s commitment to addressing prescription drug abuse in Delaware.”

 

 

According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America, more than 2,000 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time every year.  In fact, 137 deaths in 2009 are blamed are prescription drug misuse, and eighty percent of those drug overdoses involved at times multiple drugs, according to reports from the Delaware Health Statistics Center.  

 

“Unused medications pose a threat to our children, our families and our environment,” said Governor Jack Markell.  “The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is a safe way to dramatically decrease the amount of unused drugs in our medicine cabinets, homes and environment.”

 

Last year, nearly 5,000 pounds of prescription drugs were collected in Delaware during the October 2011 drug take-back event.

 

People can hand over unused or unwanted medicine at 31 sites in all three counties. 

To find a collection site near you, visit: www.dea.gov and click on “Got Drugs?”

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