Have you been waiting for the chance to clean out your medicine cabinet and dispose of your expired and unused medication? Your wait is over! On Saturday, September 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Redding Police Department, Shasta County Sheriffs Office, Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency and the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will host a free Drug Drop-Off event at the Mt. Shasta Mall in the Sears parking lot.
This drug collection event provides community members an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications. Syringes, liquids, inhalers, or creams will not be accepted. Pills should be removed from their containers and placed in a zip-type bag.
Last April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds – 276 tons – of medication at more than 5,600 sites. In Shasta County, law enforcement agencies collected 413 pounds. In the four previous Drug Drop-Off events, DEA and its partners took in over 1.5 million pounds – nearly 775 tons – of pills nationally.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that sit in home cabinets are available for misuse and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses from misusing and abusing these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines – flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash – pose potential safety and health hazards.
For more information about this event, call Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health at (530) 245-6858, or visit www.shastahhsa.net.
-from press release
