"Drug take back" event scheduled

The Superior Ambulance Service and the Mineral County Sheriff’s Department, in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, will host a ‘drug take back’ event on April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will be held at the ambulance facility, which is located across from Tamarack Clinic in Superior.

Drug take back events give the public a chance to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. Residents are encouraged to bring their drugs to dispose of them. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

Last September, Americans turned in a total of 242,000 pounds, 121 tons, of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.  Medications that sit in the medicine cabinet are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. The rates of prescription drug misuse in the United States are alarmingly high.

More than seven million Americans currently abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2009 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.  Each day, approximately, 2,500 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America.  Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet.

Montana is no exception to this problem and the state ranks third in the nation for teen abuse of prescription pain relievers.

Four days after last year’s fall 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 dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the attorney general.

Within the act, the attorney general is also allowed to authorize that long term care facilities may dispose of residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.

DEA has begun drafting regulations to implement the act, a process that can take as long as 24 months. Until regulations are in place, the DEA will continue to work with local law enforcement and other agencies to hold prescription drug take back events.

Back in September, Superior collected a total of 41 pounds of unwanted prescription drugs to be destroyed. Statewide, in September, 1,240 pounds of drugs were collected.

Prescription drug abuse is becoming the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem according to Gil Kerlikowske, the director of National Drug Control Policy.

“Take-back events like this one are an indispensable tool for reducing the threat that the diversion and abuse of these drugs pose to public health,” Kerlikowske said. “The Federal/state/and local collaboration represented in this initiative is key in our national efforts to reduce pharmaceutical drug diversion and abuse.”