DEA aims to collect unused medications

With the abuse of prescription drugs continuing to rise, the Drug Enforcement Administration is for the first time asking people across the United States to turn in their expired, unused and unwanted prescription medicines at more than 4,000 locations Saturday.

The first national "Take-Back Day" aims to collect powerful drugs that are beneficial to patients but that could fall into the wrong hands if left to languish in homes. People will be able to turn in pills, powders and other solid medicines anonymously and without fear of prosecution; authorities will safely destroy the medications by incinerating them.

A focus of the effort is to get commonly abused drugs out of circulation. Law enforcement and health officials say that prescription drug abuse in the United States is fueled by legally prescribed drugs that abusers obtain from family and friends or steal from medicine cabinets.

Prescription painkillers that produce heroin-like highs are among the most popularly abused substances and in households can be a lure for children and teens.

"This effort symbolizes DEA's commitment to halting the disturbing rise in addiction caused by their misuse and abuse," Michele M. Leonhart, acting DEA administrator, said in a statement.

"Working together with our state and local partners, the medical community, anti-drug coalitions and a concerned public, we will eliminate a major source of abused prescription drugs and reduce the hazard they pose to our families and communities in a safe, legal and environmentally sound way."

Also of concern is the commonly held belief that it's acceptable to flush old medicines down the toilet. Officials discourage that practice - unless labels indicate that the drugs can be flushed - because of public health implications.

The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the potential negative effects of drugs reaching the nation's water supply and says that the only effective way to get rid of drugs is to turn them in at a collection center or during a hazardous-waste collection event.

Capt. Brian Berke, commander of the vice, narcotics and gangs section for Arlington County police, is overseeing three collection stations in Arlington, all of which are at fire stations.

Berke said the process is simple: People can come in with their medicines and place them in a collection box, no questions asked.

"We are not going to make an effort to count anything. There will be no effort to look at any bottles," Berke said. "There will be no effort to check anyone's identification. There will be no investigation at all."

Uniformed officers and DEA officials will be at the sites to protect the locations and to secure the medications. The total amount of drugs at each site will be weighed so that the DEA can get an approximation of the total collected, and the drugs will be taken to a central location and destroyed.

Berke said that he didn't know how many people will participate in the first collection effort but that removing any amount of these medications from circulation is a good thing.

Police are seeing more "pill-related" cases, and prescription drugs can be addictive and deadly, he said.

"A majority of prescription drugs that are abused are obtained from family and friends," Berke said. "DEA is making this outlet available for people to clear out their medicine cabinets. We really encourage people to come forward."

More than 40 collection sites are to be set up throughout the Washington region from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

To find a site, go to the DEA's Web site, www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/takeback, which is searchable by Zip code or city and state.