The event allows residents from throughout western Kentucky and southern Illinois to rid their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. The police department cannot accept liquids or needles, only pills or patches.
The event is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
A similar event last September was the largest-ever of its kind at the Paducah mall, according to detective John Tolliver, the department's prescription drug investigator. A total of 243 pounds of pills were turned in, more than double the amount turned in during a similar event last spring.
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.
The DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or their family member or pet owner)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 long term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.
Anyone who cannot make it to Kentucky Oaks Mall Saturday may bring their unwanted medications to a drop box in the lobby of the Paducah Police Department, 1400 Broadway, Paducah.
