Vermont Business Magazine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, will join thousands of sites around the nation taking part inNational Drug Take Back DaySaturday, October 27. The USDrug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its 16th opportunityin eight yearsto prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.Bring your pills for disposal to either Dartmouth-Hitchcock Pharmacy location, in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center or in Centerra Office Park, both in Lebanon. (Like DEA locations, D-H cannot accept liquids or needles or sharps, only pills or patches.)The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s drug take back boxes, at both pharmacies, are being filled an average of once a week, says D-H Interim Chief Pharmacy Officer Staci Hermann. And while the DEA-sponsored event happens twice yearly, D-H’s take back boxes are available while the pharmacies are open daily, year-round.
“The response has been terrific,” Hermann notes. “We are committed to helping keep prescription drugs that are expired or no longer in use out of the wrong hands. Proper disposal, at our take back boxes or at any DEA-sponsored location, also keeps medications out of our landfills and water supplies.”
Last spring Americans turned in nearly 475 tons (949,046 pounds) of prescription drugs at more than 5,800 sites operated by the DEA and almost 4,700 of its state and local law enforcement partners. Overall, in its 15 previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in almost 10 million pounds – nearly 5,000 tons – of pills.
For more information about the disposal of prescription drugs or about theOctober 27Take Back Day event, go towww.DEATakeBack.com. There, you can find a locator for other DEA-sponsored take back locations around the region forSaturday’s event.
Source:www.DEATakeBack.com