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Santa Fe County Taking Back Unwanted Prescription Drugs on September 29

Santa Fe, NM – September 26, 2012 – The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, Santa Fe County Health Division, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico State Police will join in the national Drug Take Back Day. On Saturday, September 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. anyone can take unwanted medications for proper disposal to the following locations:

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, 35 Camino Justicia

WalMart, 3251 Cerrillos Road

State Police, 4491 Cerrillos Road

The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. This event will give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.

“In order to fight the war on drugs we must fight the war on addiction. Sometimes these addictions begin at a very young age with available drugs in our own medicine cabinets. This program can help eliminate the accessibility of prescription drugs from our children,” said Santa Fe County Sheriff, Robert Garcia.

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.

“Prescription drug abuse is becoming an alarming problem in Santa Fe County. It is far too easy for abuse, especially among young people, when our medicine cabinets are full of unused, unwanted and out of date medicines. This is a very easy way to remove this danger from our homes,” Rachel O’Connor, Santa Fe County Health and Human Services Director.

Last April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds (276 tons) of prescription drugs at over 5,600 sites operated by the DEA and nearly 4,300 state and local law enforcement partners. In its four previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 1.5 million pounds (nearly 775 tons) of pills.