Do you have unused or expired prescription medications at your home?

Don’t throw the prescriptions away. Instead, bring the medications for disposal between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 28 at Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office at 940 New Salem Highway .

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is partnering with law enforcement agency partners to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.

DEA and its partners will hold their fourth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day at sites nationwide.  The service is free and anonymous with no questions asked.

Sheriff’s Capt. Jason Mathis said the sheriff’s narcotics division receives questions weekly on how to handle medications from a deceased loved one to anonymous calls from parents who took the substances from children.

The collection gives people a chance to turn in unwanted medications with no questions asked.

“We don’t want these medications placed into the trash where they could be hazardous to our wildlife and environment or disposed of in our water system,” Mathis said. “I would like every one to tell a friend or loved one about this initiative and would like for the citizens of Rutherford County to help make it a record breaking year for medications turned in to be properly disposed of.”  

DEA reported Americans participating in DEA’s three previous Take-Back Days turned in nearly a million pounds—almost 500 tons—of prescription drugs at over 5,300 sites operated by more than 4,000 of the DEA’s state and local law enforcement partners.  Last fall’s event encouraged participation by long term care facilities and Indian nations as well as the general public. 

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--more Americans currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, and heroin combined, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.  Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. 

“Prescription drug abuse is a major epidemic across the country and DEA is committed to reducing the potential for misuse by providing a safe and secure method for Americans to clean out their medicine cabinets and properly dispose of unwanted, unneeded, or expired medications,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.  “Americans responded overwhelmingly to DEA’s first three Take-Back Day events, disposing of nearly 500 tons of medication in the past two years.  This nationwide community effort prevents home medicine cabinets from becoming sources of dangerous – and even deadly – drugs."