Have you been trying to figure out what to do with your expired, unused and unneeded medications? Do you know that the FDA now recommends NOT disposing of most medications down the drain? We have a solution for you! For the 9th time, Redding Police Department, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency-Public Health and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are teaming up to host a free medication disposal event on Saturday, September 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mt. Shasta Mall in the Sears parking lot.
This event will be the latest in a string of successful events that have been occurring for the past four years. In an effort to make disposal easier, the DEA has devised new regulations that will allow consumers many additional opportunities to dispose of medication they no longer need, these new rules will be effect October 9, 2014. For now, community members can use this opportunity to prevent medication abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications. Pills should be removed from their containers and placed in a zip-type bag. Syringes and/or liquids will not be accepted.
Events like this help address a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that sit in home cabinets are at risk of being misused and abused. 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 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that in 2011, an estimated 6.1 million people age 12 and over were current, non-medical users of prescription drugs. As many as 54% of people who abuse prescription drugs obtain the drugs they abuse from family and friends for FREE, 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.
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
