The Gilroy Police Department received more than 40 pounds of unused prescription pills and liquids during the Drug Enforcement Administration’s drug take back initiative Oct. 26. The initiative is a nationwide effort to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding homes of potentially dangerous, expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
According to a press release from the DEA, “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.”
The service was free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Last April, Americans turned in 371 tons – more than 742,000 pounds – of prescription drugs at more than 5,800 sites maintained by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners, reads the press release. In its six previous Take Back events, the DEA and law enforcement took in more than 1,400 tons of pills (more than 2.8 million pounds) of pills.
