MACON, MO -- Is your medicine cabinet filled with expired drugs or medications you no longer use? How should you dispose of them?
Please bring your medications for disposal to C&R Supermarket Parking Lot at 703 E Briggs Drive in Macon on Saturday, October 29th from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. Prescription and over-the-counter solid dosage medications, like tablets and capsules are accepted. Liquids in their original, sealed containers will be accepted. Needles will not be accepted and illicit substances, such as marijuana, are not part of this initiative.
The Missouri Rural Water Association, Macon County Public Water Supply District #1, Macon Municipal Utilities and the Macon Police Department are coordinating efforts with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs while also protecting our local environment from these harmful drugs being disposed of improperly.
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. 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 to the concerns of abuse, 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 to the environment. Many types of drugs, such as antibiotics, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Small amounts of medications have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The federal government does not require monitoring or testing for pharmaceuticals in drinking water. Furthermore, Water and wastewater facilities are not designed to take pharmaceuticals out of the water.
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 long term 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 Macon Police Department and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.
This event is to collect expired prescription and over-the-counter medications to properly dispose of them so they are not disposed of into the environment and to reduce the opportunity for drug abuse. For more information about the National Prescription Drug Take Back Event in Macon, contact Stephanie Wilson at 660-385-3173, Brian Bender at 660-385-6457 or Modeste Ewing at 660-385-2195. More information about the National Drug Take Back Event program can also be found at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKTVO