Area residents will have the opportunity to dispose of unused prescription drugs on Saturday, April 30.
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The Grundy County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration will offer a free and anonymous prescription drug disposal from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grundy County Law Enforcement Center.
The goal of the program is to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. 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. 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 – both pose potential safety and health hazards.
Last September, Americans turned in 242,000 pounds – 121 tons – of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners. Four days after that event, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” 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. The DEA has begun drafting regulations to implement the Act.