FAST FACTS
• WHAT: Collection of unwanted prescription drugs
• WHEN: Saturday, April 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• WHERE: Manteca Police Department, 1001 W. Center St.
• COST: Free
Unwanted prescription drugs stored in family medicine cabinets in Manteca are the focus of the Manteca Police Department in a collection effort set for Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Police Captain Charlie Goeken said Wednesday he hopes to surpass last year’s collection effort that brought 90 pounds of pills and capsules into a collection station.
Goeken said the station is going to be set up outside the police station at 1001 West Center Street and will be manned by reserve officers, costing the city nothing for them being on duty as it would if regular officers logged overtime hours.
The service is free and those bring in their medications will remain anonymous. The collection by the Manteca Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous drugs that have expired from their homes.
In the Fall of last year Americans turned in 242,000 pounds – a total of 121 tons – of prescription drugs at over 4,000 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners including the Manteca Police Department that collected more than 90 pounds of prescription drugs.
Goeken pointed out that the initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that are kept for great lengths of time in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.
Rates of prescription drug misuse in the US are alarmingly high, he added, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses caused by the use of these drugs.
Studies have shown that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including those from the home medicine cabinet. Flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash both pose potential safety and health hazards, he said.
Four days after last September’s collection events across the country, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 amending the Controlled Substances Act to allow the “ultimate user” of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by handing them over to agencies 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 cases. The DEA has begun drafting regulations to implement the Act.
Police Captain Charlie Goeken said Wednesday he hopes to surpass last year’s collection effort that brought 90 pounds of pills and capsules into a collection station.
Goeken said the station is going to be set up outside the police station at 1001 West Center Street and will be manned by reserve officers, costing the city nothing for them being on duty as it would if regular officers logged overtime hours.
The service is free and those bring in their medications will remain anonymous. The collection by the Manteca Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous drugs that have expired from their homes.
In the Fall of last year Americans turned in 242,000 pounds – a total of 121 tons – of prescription drugs at over 4,000 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners including the Manteca Police Department that collected more than 90 pounds of prescription drugs.
Goeken pointed out that the initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that are kept for great lengths of time in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.
Rates of prescription drug misuse in the US are alarmingly high, he added, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses caused by the use of these drugs.
Studies have shown that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including those from the home medicine cabinet. Flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash both pose potential safety and health hazards, he said.
Four days after last September’s collection events across the country, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 amending the Controlled Substances Act to allow the “ultimate user” of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by handing them over to agencies 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 cases. The DEA has begun drafting regulations to implement the Act.
