Last
April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds—276 tons—of prescription drugs at over
5,600 sites operated by the DEA and nearly 4,300 state and local law
enforcement partners. In its four
previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 1.5 million
pounds—nearly 775 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. DEA is
drafting regulations to implement the Act.
Until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like
the Seattle Police Department and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events
every few months.
Locally, the King County Board of Health's Subcommittee on Secure Medicine Return is exploring how it can support safe disposal of unused medicines.
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