Incident: National Prescription Drug Take-Back Campaign
Location: Santa Clara Police Department, 601 El Camino Real, Santa Clara
Date/Time: Saturday, April 27, 2013 between 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
The Santa Clara Police Department will join with the Drug Enforcement Administration to offer the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by disposing of their dangerous, expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Members of the community are invited to drop off medications for disposal at the designated location outside the Santa Clara Police Department. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Last September, 244 tons of prescription drugs were turned in at over 5,200 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners, including the Santa Clara Police Department. In the five previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 2 million pounds of drugs, which is a thousand tons of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Unused medicines in home cabinets are highly susceptible to 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. Too often abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from home medicine cabinets. In addition, disposing of unused medicines by flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash poses potential safety and health hazards.
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. Additional information is available online: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugdisposal/takeback.
Lieutenant Kurt Clarke
Santa Clara Police Department
Administrative Services Division
601 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, Ca. 95050, (408) 615-4865 Fax: (408) 296-1346