Operation Take Back: Time to Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet

Disposing of potentially dangerous expired, unused or unwanted prescription drugs can help prevent pill abuse and theft.

Rid your home of these prescription drugs safely and privately on Sept. 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Aberdeen Township Police Department during Operation Take Back.

Operation Take Back is run by local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The service is free and anonymous, no questions
asked.

Last April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds, or 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 New Jersey alone, over 16,000 pounds of medications were collected during the April 2012 Take Back initiative.

In its four previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 1.5 million pounds, or 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, like 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. Until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like the Aberdeen police and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.

For more information contact Detective Sgt. Michael O’Dwyer at 732-583-4200 ext. 202 or go to www.dea.gov.