National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day Set for April 30
DEA's National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is intended to provide a safe and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while educating the public about the potential for medication misuse.
Set for April 30, 2016, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m., is this year's initial National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day -- an event the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and law enforcement agencies used to provide a safe and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs while educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications. Online visitors and law enforcement personnel may check back April 1, 2016 to locate collection sites in their area.
DEA calls its National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day Initiative (NTBI) a big success. The event on Sept. 26, 2015, the tenth NTBI since September 2010, resulted in more than 350 tons of unused, expired, or unwanted drugs being turned in; more than 3,800 federal, state, and local counterparts took in more than 702,365 pounds of drugs at more than 5,000 collection sites across the country. Including that NTBI event, the cumulative total of collections reached 5,525,021 pounds of drugs.
"The numbers are shocking—approximately 46,000 Americans die each year from drug-related deaths. More than half of those are from heroin and prescription opioids," Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said then. "With four out of five new heroin users starting with prescription medications, I know our take-back program makes a real difference."
Rosenberg remains in acting status as the head of DEA; he was appointed May 13, 2015, by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.5 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs and a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.