Prescription Drug Surrender Event Planned for This Month

Residents are urged to turn in their expired and unwanted prescriptions to police this month as part of an event to keep the drugs out of the wrong hands.

 The Take-Back event is planned for Oct. 29 from 10 to 2 p.m. at the Manassas Park Police Department at 329 Manassas Drive.

 The event is a collaboration among local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Together, they aid in the safe disposal of prescription drugs.

Such events help to prevent pill abuse and theft by allowing people to rid their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs, William “Quiz” Quesenberry,  the Manassas Park Police community resource officer, said this week.

 This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue, he said.

 Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Prescription drug abuse in the U.S. is alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses of these drugs.

 Studies show that the majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from home medicine cabinets, according to a press release issued this week by the Manassas Park Police Department.

 Additionally authorities have found that flushing prescriptions down the toilet or throwing them in the trash pose potential safety and health hazards.

 The Oct. 29 event isn’t the first of its kind; authorities held the first event in September 2010.

 In April, 376,593 pounds—188 tons—of prescription drugs were turned it at nearly 5,400 sites in the U.S. operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners, according to the release.

 In 2010, the U.S. Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010. The act 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 U.S. Attorney General to accept them, no questions asked.

 The act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long-term care facilities to dispose of controlled substances in certain instances. 

DEA officials are drafting regulations to implement the Act, a process that can take as long as 24 months. 

But until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like Manassas Park and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.