Prescription drug Take Back coming
April 10, 2013
On April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Bonners Ferry Police Department and the Boundary County Sheriffs office, in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will give the citizens of Boundary County their first opportunity to rid their homes of potentially dangerous, expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.

Bring your medications for disposal to Super 1 Foods at 6452 Main Street in Bonners Ferry. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. This will be the sixth opportunity nationally the DEA has conducted the Drug Take Back Program.

Last September, Americans turned in 244 tons of prescription drugs at over 5,200 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners.

In its five previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over two million pounds—over a thousand tons—of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. 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.

Four days after the first 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.

DEA is drafting regulations to implement the Act. Until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like the Bonners Ferry Police, Boundary County Sheriff and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.