The Kirkland Police Department, in support with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will host a “Drug Take Back” event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Kirkland Police Department lobby at City Hall, 123 5th Avenue.
This event gives the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous, expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. The service is free and anonymous.
Last April, Americans turned in 376,593 pounds—188 tons—of prescription drugs at nearly 5,400 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners.
According to the DEA, 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, 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.
Four days after the first Take-Back event in September 2010, 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.
The act also allows the Attorney General to authorize longterm care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.
DEA has begun drafting regulations to implement the act, a process that can take as long as 24 months.
Until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like the Kirkland Police and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.
For more information about this event, please contact Detective Allan O’Neill at 425-587-3501 or email at aoneill@kirklandwa.gov.
