NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG TAKE BACK DAY: A national day to ask all Americans to safely dispose of unneeded medication.
- On National Take Back Day (Saturday, April 28, 2018), the Drug Enforcement Administration, in partnership with Federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement, businesses, medical offices, federal agencies, and first responders will host events to collect and safely dispose of unneeded medication.
- National Take Back Day happens twice per year.
- Each Take Back Day, thousands of pounds of prescription drugs are returned, helping to prevent incidents of drug abuse and misuse across the nation.
- According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, results from the October 2017 National Take Back Day show:
- 4,274 law enforcement partners participated;
- there were 5,321 collection sites; and
- 912,305 pounds of prescription drugs were collected, more than the weight of three Boeing 757 airplanes.
- According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, results from the October 2017 National Take Back Day show:
- On Take Back Day, unneeded medication can be dropped off at any one of thousands of disposal drop off sites.
- A tool to locate your nearest collection site is available at: https://takebackday.dea.gov
- Year-round you can drop off unneeded prescription drugs at participating Walgreens, CVS’s or by ordering a free safe disposal mail-in envelopes from the National Safety Council at NSC.org/TakeBack:
- Some retail pharmacies, such as Walgreens and Walmart, offer drug disposal programs on site.
- A number of other retail pharmacies, such as Costco, CVS, or Rite Aid, sell postage-paid envelopes for customers to mail any prescriptions.
- Free safe disposal mail-in envelopes are offered by the National Safety Council.
RISKS OF KEEPING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: From ingesting out-of-date prescription drugs to abuse and misuse of prescriptions, keeping unneeded prescriptions poses a number of risks.
- Unneeded or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue.
- Results from the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicate that nearly 19 million Americans 12 or older abused or misused prescription drugs in the past year.
- According to the FDA, expired medical products can be less effective or risky due to a change in chemical composition.
- Some expired medications are at risk of bacterial growth or can become ineffective, as sub-potent antibiotics can fail to treat infections- and can facilitate the spread of potentially lethal drug-resistant infections.
- Overprescribing and stockpiling of opioids contributes to our nation’s opioid epidemic.
- The 2016 NSDUH indicated that more than 3 million people aged 12 or older were current nonmedical users of pain relievers, and that more than 11.5 million people aged 12 or older reported misuse of opioid pain relievers in the past year.
- The economic costs associated with abuse or misuse are huge. The Council of Economic Advisors estimates that in 2015, the economic cost of the opioid crisis was $504 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP that year.
- In 2016, there were more than 42,000 deaths in the United States resulting from an overdose involving opioids, up from more than 33,000 in 2015; further, 40% of those overdose deaths in 2016 involved commonly prescribed opioids.
- Americans are frequently left with unneeded prescription opioids, which are often poorly stored and easy targets for drug abusers or children.
- A 2017 review of 6 studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery found that up to 92% of surgical patients prescribed opioids didn’t use their entire prescription.
- The same review found that in two of the studies approximately three out of four patients failed to store their unused opioids in locked containers.
- According to the CDC, most people who abuse prescription opioids get them for free from a friend or relative.
- The 2016 NSDUH indicated that more than 3 million people aged 12 or older were current nonmedical users of pain relievers, and that more than 11.5 million people aged 12 or older reported misuse of opioid pain relievers in the past year.
- Keeping stores of prescription drugs could lead to accidental exposure to dangerous medication.
- In 2016, 23,872 cases of improper medicine use reported to Poison Control Centers in the United States involved accidental exposure to another person’s medicine.
- According to data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, from 2004 to 2011, an estimated 22,174 children aged 1 to 5 were taken to an emergency room due to accidental ingestion of opioid pain relievers.
Shared from Whitehouse.gov
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The overprescription of opioids fuels the problem. Opioids are inexpensive to manufacture, pharmaceutical companies offer opioids to physicians for low cost, hyping the efficacy making them attractive to prescribe. At the pharmacy, opioids are inexpensive for the consumer. Once the medication is in the home, patients have little information, written in plain language by their doctor, about how to most effectively use them. To truly combat opioid addiction, fewer pills should dispensed as a prescription, lower doses should be used and drug companies’ profits from opioids should be regulated. Once a person is addicted, all measures should be taken to make sure they get the treatment needed including long-term and short care at rehabilitation facilities being paid for in full by insurance.
Just legalize drugs of any kind, and leave people alone to deal with their problems…..stop the DEA!
it appears trump has compassion for other people,but not for the elderly an seniors, this is a horrible law an it should be fixed, its a shame that we have a president that has no concerns for
seniors an the elderly, but he sure knows how to fix problems for others”this is the worst thing that trump had done to the american people, ”’a lot of people that i know are pissed , you fix the
problem you just don’t take our medication away there’s millions american seniors an elderly
who needs there medication an also the ones that have no cure””this a major problem for trump
he’s gone a little to far”’it may even cost him”””””this is not making america again”””””
trump opioid
Apr 24 at 9:20 AM
John Scarano
to steve scalise
Apr 23 at 8:46 PM
trumps opioid”’will affect low income seniors with
severe pain,”doctors all now discontinue pain medication, an now there recommending to see pain doctors””there co. pay is 45 to 50 dollars a visit an follow ups which i can’t afford,.i was doing fine with my doctor, i was taking pain medication
for many years an it regulated my pain, it now appears
i might have to resort now to liquor an aspirin thanks to donald trump,.im not only speaking for myself, an for the seniors that i know of, an there’s many more””im a very big supportor to donald trump on facebook an disgus commentator an other, from the beginning until now big big time
yes i was attack mently an bodily for being a trump supportor ””’this opioid law is good for the doctors not good for seniors
”””’i call it in a way a death panel for low income
seniors””’an by the way
, im itilian an from queens ny born in brooklyn”””steve i felt very bad about that shooting
”””””an may the lord be with you”god bless you
gun laws affects good americans
trumps opioid law affect good seniors who are in need
an special the one with no cure
trumps opioid law affects low income seniors who are in need, an im one of them
””’i am very much disappointed in president trump, big let down
””””””””””””””very sad””””thank you
”””””””’see if this can be fixed
A LOT of FOOLS OD OVER & OVER SAVED BY EMT ! WHICH IS A > WASTE OF TAX PAYER $$. JUST LET EM DIE ! Give it 3 yrs & C if they wise up & the # drop
Come on give me a break, anyone who doesn’t know you should not take anymore pills than the bottle says is lying. Trying to blame addiction on someone other than the individual is BS. I’ve been prescribed painkillers many times. Used every one in the bottle. But if you ABUSE the prescription, say use 10 a day for weeks, you must know you are going to have an issue. These people should be forced to use the “John Lennon Method” His method called COLD TURKEY, worked for his heroin addiction. He even wrote a song called Cold Turkey, search it out and listen to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEnNEIVR9EM Nobody’s tax dollars should be used to pay for these addicts weaknesses. People got along just fine before a proliferation of these pills. You can’t claim ignorance, they took them to get high. Lots of people have used painkillers from time to time without ANY ADDICTION WHEN USED AS DIRECTED. No the ones that got addicted are the ones that wanted to get high. Should have been satisfied with pot instead.
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If you delete my post I am never coming to this website again. Good luck it is a wonder anybody comes to this site. It is obscure. Be thankful I visited and do not delete my post. There is nothing wrong with it.
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why don’t you wait till next week to moderate my comment, by then nobody will see it. that’s it done with your lousy website. what a waste of time that was if I knew you would take days to moderate my comment I would not have wasted my time. have fun in obscurity. quit sending me your emails!
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The Opiate Epidemic is not a scam, that is until you consider the CDC and Medical Community is bullying people that actually need the pain meds. Please note the CDC does not differentiate from legally obtained and illegally obtained opiates that caused overdose deaths. Fact is there is NO way they can know. Additionally, all the statistics they publish are statistical estimates taken from 1% of death certificates in each state. Election polling is much more accurate.
This is one time that the President is showing he is a complete idiot. Anyone who believes what the CDC, FDA, or DEA says is just as stupid.