National Drug Take-Back Day Encourages Safe Disposal Of Unused Medications (CBS Baltimore)
Monday May 1st, 2017
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Unused medications for a lot of people often sit somewhere in their homes. There is a fear it will land in the wrong hands, or even cause death.
It’s the reason behind the DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day and many people stepped up, and properly tossed out.
Tanya Brown is one of the many people in Baltimore dropping off what she no longer needs nor uses, bottles of old prescription medication.
“I thought it was important to get these old things out of my home and get them properly disposed of,” she says.
It’s a big push from the DEA’s Baltimore district office, where assistant special agent Don Hibbert, says we are in the midst of a serious epidemic.
“In 2015, 52,000 people died from an overdose, 33,000 of those were from opioids. That’s more that can fill the capacity of Camden Yards,” says Hibbert.
“When we think about commonly abused substances, we tend to think about: the heroine, cocaine, illegal drugs, but actually prescription and over the counter drugs are some of the most commonly abused substances in America,” says Dr. Leanna Wen, Baltimore City Commissioner of Health.