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Santa Fe County Drug Take Back Day Piles up Pounds of Pills

Santa Fe, NM – May 17, 2013 - Santa Fe County residents emptied their medicine cabinets of nearly 400 pounds of unused, unwanted and expired prescription medications during a special Drug Take Back Day in April. Officers from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, the Santa Fe Police Department, Edgewood Police and New Mexico State Police collected drugs at six different locations throughout Santa Fe County, from Edgewood to Pojoaque.

“Having a safe way to dispose of these hundreds of pounds of medications cluttering up our medicine cabinets is an important tool to overcome the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Santa Fe County leads the state in this type of drug abuse and this is one way we are changing that,” said Rachel O’Connor, Director of Santa Fe County Health Division.

In conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Santa Fe County Sheriff, City and State Police and Edgewood Police set up collection stations at Smith’s Grocery stores in Santa Fe and Edgewood, the Pojoaque fire station, the new Wal-Mart Super Center in Santa Fe and the Agora Pharmacy in Eldorado. People brought their pill bottles and dumped them into collection boxes, taking advantage of this free and anonymous service.

New Mexico had the highest drug overdose death rate in the United States. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, 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 pose safety and health hazards and should not be done.

Additional drug take back events are planned for 2013 as well as permanent collection sites. The locations of these permanent collection sites will be announced as they become active.

For more information contact Peter Olson 992-9844 or polson@santafecountynm.gov