NORTHAMPTON -- On Saturday, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., area resident are invited to bring their unwanted prescription and non-prescription medications to the drop off site located at Smith Vocational High School, 80 Locust St., Northampton.
The program is anonymous and the pills can be in their original containers. Items which cannot be accepted include needles, syringes, lancets, thermometers, IV bags, chemo drugs and liquids of any type. Drugs collected at the central drop-off points will be picked up by members of the National Guard to be deposited at a DEA facility for destruction.
The Hampshire/Franklin TRIAD program, Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, Hampshire and Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, local police departments community partners are working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to mount the nationwide effort.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, prescription drugs, including opioids and antidepressants, are responsible for more overdose deaths than “street drugs.” And yet, two in five teens believe that prescription drugs are “much safer” than street drugs, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Keeping prescription drugs out of the hands of children and teenagers is one of the most important objectives of National Prescription Drug Day, as is raising awareness of this growing public health crisis and ensuring the safety of our elder population. Helping elders clean out their medicine cabinets can help prevent accidental overdoses and the misappropriation of prescription drugs by personal care assistants or loved ones.
Another objective of Take Back Day is keeping harmful chemicals out of the environment. Unwanted and out-of-date drugs cannot be simply thrown in the garbage or flushed down the toilet. Pharmaceuticals are already present in some of the nation’s water bodies, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.