The Gilroy and Morgan Hill police departments, along with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration, will hold an event that gives the public its seventh opportunity in three years to “prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs,” according to a press release.
Members of the public can bring their medications for disposal to the GPD at 7301 Hanna St. in Gilroy or 16200 Vineyard Blvd between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26. Prescription medications can also be surrendered at the South County substation at 80 W. Highland Ave. in San Martin, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m, also on Saturday.
The service is 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 operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners, the press release states. In its six previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in more than 2.8 million pounds of pills.
According to the DEA, “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.”
Additionally, studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. 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, according to the DEA.
About the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act
The DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or pet or their family member or owner) 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.
