Local department to accept unwanted prescription medicines for disposal
Benicia residents who have old or unwanted prescription drugs can give them to Benicia police Sept. 27 for proper disposal, Lt. Michael Greene said.
It will be the ninth time Benicia police has teamed with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to take in the potentially dangerous unused drugs, he said.
“The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked,” Greene said.
The department will be accepting pills and patches, but Greene said the DEA can’t accept either liquids or needles, or “sharps.”
Last April, Americans turned in more than 780,000 pounds of prescription drugs at nearly 6,100 sites operated by the DEA, and at more than 4,400 sites operated by state and local law enforcement agencies that were partners with the DEA in the project, Greene said.
“When those results are combined with what was collected in its eight previous ‘Take Back’ events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 4.1 million pounds, more than 2,100 tons, of pills,” he said.
Greene said the event and the collaborative initiative address a “vital” public safety and public health issue.
“Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse,” he said.
He said the rates of abuse of prescription drugs in the United States have become alarming. Law enforcement officers also have become worried at dramatic increases in the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses that are associated with prescription drugs, he said.
“Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet,” Greene said.
However, flushing those pills down a toilet or throwing them away in the trash pose other health and safety hazards, he said.
The DEA is examining proposed regulations that would let people identified as “ultimate users,” such as patients, patients’ family members and pet owners, dispose of unwanted medications by delivering them to agencies authorized by the Attorney General’s Office to accept them, Greene said.
The new regulations would modify the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 that first authorized the “Take Back” events. The act also allows the attorney general to authorize, under certain circumstances, the disposal of controlled substances by long-term residential care sites.
Those wanting to dispose of their expired, unwanted or unused prescription pills and patches may take them to Benicia Police Department, 200 East L St., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 27. Those interested may call Community Service Officer Patti Baron, 707-746-4268.
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