Most households have outdated prescriptions in their medicine cabinets, which can be tempting to teens and others who might use them for recreational purposes. With confusion about the impact of flushing drugs down the toilet, MainCor and the Kansas City Police Department offer a safer alternative: a drug take-back event.
The Kansas City Police Department and MainCor are planning another prescription drug take-back day in September. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, getting outdated pills out of medicine cabinets is “a crucial step toward reducing the epidemic drug abuse that is plaguing the nation.”
Health and safety officials have turned to a national drug take-back system to reduce the chance that young people will sample drugs from medicine cabinets. As James Schriever at the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department pointed out in an email today:
- Prescription pill abuse is now considered the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States.
- Missouri ranks 16th highest nationally in oxycodone prescription abuse. Oxycodone is similar to the popular drug, Oxycontin.
- Government officials are especially concerned about teens and pills. Nearly half (47%) of teens who use prescription drugs say they get them for free from a relative or friend. Ten percent say they buy pain relievers from a friend or relative, and another 10 percent say they took the drugs without asking.
- More than three in five teens say prescription pain relievers are easy to get from parents’ medicine cabinets; half of teens (50% or 11.9 million) say they are easy to get through other people’s prescriptions; and more than half (52% or 12.3 million) say prescription pain relievers are “available everywhere.”
Details
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day
Saturday, September 29, 2012, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
MainCor Parking Lot on the east side of Main Street, 3215 Main Street
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