Drug Take-Back Day huge success in Alabama

Residents of the US state of Alabama turned in 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of prescription drugs for safe disposal on the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, conducted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and its state partner agencies.

The event took place at 52 collection centres in Alabama and almost 5,000 locations throughout the USA, to collect unused, unwanted, or expired prescription drugs from members of the public. Nationwide, the DEA collected 912,305 pounds (413,815 kilograms) of prescription drugs, constituting just over a 1% increase on last year’s total.

According to a statement by Jay E. Town, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, the semi-annual drug collection event “continues to remove ever-higher amounts of opioids and other medicines from the nation’s homes, where they could be stolen and abused by family members and visitors, including children and teens.”

Since Autumn 2010, Drug Take-Back Day has resulted in the collection of about 9,015,668 pounds (4,089,438 kilograms) of drugs. The event began as a joint effort between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to educate the public about the dangers of the improper disposal of prescription drugs.

“Properly disposing of pills left in home medicine cabinets means fewer pills making it into the hands of young people experimenting with drugs, possibly leading to more drug abuse and possible addiction. The success of DEA’s fall Take-Back indicates people are learning how dangerous the abuse of prescription pills, particularly opioid painkillers, can be and are taking the right step to reduce the amount of pills that make it onto the streets,” said Town.