National Prescription Take Back Day

RX Drugs

What happens with unused prescription drugs? They often fall into the wrong hands, or mouths.

RX DrugsAccording to a recent survey, around 6 million Americans misused controlled prescription drugs. The study points out that a majority of these abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often taken directly from the family’s home medicine cabinet.

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day helps address an important public safety and public health issue, especially in the wake of all the recent news regarding the rising opioid addiction problem in the United States. The DEA’s 16th annual Take Back Day event takes place this Saturday, April 27th. The event allows people to help prevent drug addiction or possible overdose deaths by allowing them to safely, and anonymously, drop off their unused prescription drugs at collection sites throughout the US – Find a prescription collection site near you!

6 Staggering Stats Regarding the US Opioid Epidemic

  1. Health care providers throughout the U.S. initiated over 214 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication in 2016 – that’s about 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people.
  2. One in every five people receive prescription opioids long-term for non-cancer related pain in primary care settings.
  3. Over 1,000 people are treated every day in emergency departments throughout our country for misusing prescription drugs.
  4. Over 11 million people abused prescription opioids in 2016.
  5. Of all the opioid overdose deaths in the US, over 40% involved a prescription opioid.
  6. Drug overdoses claimed the lives of nearly 64,000 people in the US in 2016, and about 66% of these deaths involved a prescription or illicit opioid.

Too often unused prescription drugs find their way into the wrong hands. That’s why #TakeBackDay is helping many people throughout Seattle to clean out their medicine cabinets and drop off unused or expired medications, safely and anonymously.

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