2019 National Prescription Drug Take Back Day: Saturday, April 27th. Find a Collection Site Near You.

DEA-take-back-day-2019-RX-drugs

On Saturday, April 27th, 2019 the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is hosting the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. This event aims to provide for the safe and confidential disposal of any unused, expired or unwanted prescription drugs that you may have in your home medicine cabinet. Collection sites will be fully operational between 10am and 2pm.  The collection is completely confidential, with no personal information collected and no questions asked.

Besides removing drugs from potential abuse, the program aims to help to educate the public about the dangers of prescription drug misuse and abuse. On the DEA’s website for National RX Take Back Day, you will find a national list of collection facilities available in California for Saturday, April 27, 2019.  There is also a link to find year-round collection sites in your local area.

Prescription drug abuse is a major concern across the United States as many communities are struggling with the ongoing opioid epidemic. In August of 2018, the Centers for Disease Control released their annual summary of drug overdose deaths in the US. In the report, the CDC shows that over 72,000 people have died in the US from a drug overdose in 2017.  This is the largest number of recorded overdose deaths ever. Factor in the other 630,000 people who have died from a drug overdose since the late 90’s, and we see a growing problem that shows no signs of slowing down. Since the late 1990’s, pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively marketing prescription opioids such as Oxycontin, Percocet, codeine and even fentanyl. This major problem for many Americans begins as a medication, prescribed by a doctor and in several cases turns into a heroin addiction.

As opioid prescription rates are currently in decline, the problem of misuse of prescription drugs is constant and the health risks are dangerous and deadly. It is estimated that last year nearly 11.5 million Americans used a controlled prescription drug without a prescription from a doctor, according to the DEA. This study states that 40% received the pills from a family member or friend. Sometimes this occurs by the person visiting your home and raiding your personal medicine cabinet. Medicines that are accessibly placed in a bathroom or other location are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.

heroin spoon syringe

This seemingly innocent accessibility of drugs at home or in garbage bins can be very dangerous when they sometimes find their way into the wrong hands. This certainly is a huge contributor to substance abuse in your community. The DEA’s National Take Back Day is a way for you to turn in your unwanted and unused drug prescriptions in a safe, confidential way. National Take Back Day is the perfect opportunity to clean out your home medicine cabinet and be assured that your old medications and pills are disposed of safely and securely with the expert help of the proper authorities.

Some facts about prescription pharmaceutical drugs:

  • -Prescription drug abuse causes more than half of the deaths from overdose in the US.
  • -Non-medical use of pharmaceutical drugs is the second most abused illicit substance, close behind marijuana.
  • -It is unsafe to simply throw prescription meds away in the trash. This makes it very easy way for people to steal them and sell them on the streets of your local community.
  • -The majority of teenagers in the United States who abuse medications and prescription drugs, get them from the medicine cabinets of their own home, or the homes of family members and close friends. 
  • -Pharmaceutical prescription drugs can be just as dangerous as illicit street drugs when taken without a medical doctor’s supervision.
  • -Flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet is a very bad idea.  It can contaminate rivers and streams and your local community’s water supply. Proper disposal helps to protect the environment and it could help save someone’s life.
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In October of 2018, at a prior RX Drug Take Back Day, collection sites received over 450 tons of prescription meds from 5,839 locations nationwide. This is the agency’s 8th year of the program. The DEA will be holding these events twice per year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

If for any reason you are unable to make it to the National RX Drug Take Back Day, or the event has already passed, click this link to find out where you can find other, year-round disposal sites for your expired, unused or unwanted prescriptions:

On Saturday, April 27, 2019 the DEA is hosting an anonymous, confidential and safe way to dispose of your unused prescription medications. Participants are asked to remove labels or black out personal information before you drop them off at a collection facility. Find locations in California and more information on year round sites here:

https://apps.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/NTBI/ntbi-pub.pub?_flowExecutionKey=_c2D824ED8-7C29-BCF5-325E-6D874980C592_k91966A3B-739F-8010-46B0-CE524C868467

If you do not find your area listed at the link above, contact your local law enforcement officials to see if they participate in the event.

Addiction Treatment After Overdose

man lying in bed hospitalized because of drug overdose

It’s difficult for some people to grasp the driving forces of addiction. Upon hearing of someone’s overdose, one might think that an event like that would wake someone up to reality. Ideally, an overdose would be a catalyst for seeking help, assistance in the form of addiction treatment. There are instances when an overdose is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, prompting someone to seek treatment. Sadly, some individuals experience several overdoses before coming to terms with their situation. The realization: Seek recovery or perish from the disease.

In the wake of the opioid addiction epidemic, overdose is on most people’s mind. One doesn’t need to have a history of addiction to understand the gravity of the situation. Efforts to make the lifesaving overdose reversal drug naloxone more available have spared thousands of lives. However, a cure for overdose is not an antidote for addiction.

man lying in bed hospitalized because of drug overdose

When overdose victims are not encouraged and steered toward treatment, history is bound to repeat itself. A new study makes that reality abundantly clear, nearly 10% of revived patients dying within one year of the overdose. Half of them died within one month of being treated with naloxone, Morningstar reports. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). The findings highlight the need for treatment after an overdose revival.

Addiction Treatment Is A Must

Some 140 Americans perish from overdose each day in the United States. Even more people are revived, and such individuals are at the pinnacle of despair. In such a state, one is more likely to see the value of recovery. The problem is that many OD survivors are not connected with addiction treatment professionals at the time. When faced with experiencing days of withdrawal sickness or using again, the latter is almost always the choice.

“Patients who survive opioid overdoses are by no means ‘out of the woods,’” says lead study author Dr. Scott Weiner. “These patients continue to be at high-risk for overdose and should be connected with additional resources such as counseling, treatment and buprenorphine.”

While addiction treatment services exist all around the country, in certain areas accessing help isn’t easy. If people can’t find a bed at a facility or have to wait, they are apt to return to using. More treatment centers are needed in rural America, where high rates of overdose per capita are occurring. The researchers shared a survey at the ACEP meeting, the findings of which were troubling:

“Virtually every emergency physician has seen firsthand the tragedy of opioid addiction,” said Paul Kivela, MD, FACEP, president of ACEP. “The consequences of this epidemic are playing out in the nation’s emergency departments. Almost all the emergency physicians responding to an ACEP poll (87 percent) reported that the number of patients seeking opioids has increased or remained the same. More than half (57 percent) said that detox and rehabilitation facilities were rare or never accessible.”

Breaking the Cycle of Addiction

Without help, the odds of overcoming opioid use disorder on one’s own are slim to none. Addiction treatment works and services should be available to people at the time of an overdose. If you or a loved one experienced an overdose recently, please contact 10 Acre Ranch immediately. We can help break the cycle of addiction and show you how a life in recovery is possible. Picking up the phone or contacting us online is the first step.