Drop off your unwanted, expired prescription drugs

NEWTOWN - The Newtown Township Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. The public is encouraged to drop off their medications in the parking lot of the township building at 100 Municipal Drive on Sept. 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The service is free and anonymous with no questions asked.

Last April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds — 276 tons — of prescription drugs at more than 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 more than 1.5 million pounds — nearly 775 tons — of pills.

Drug enforcement officials said the initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. They say that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse at a time when 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.

)our days after the first Take Back 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.