(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky State Police, in partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, collected 1,200 pounds of prescription medications in the Eighth National Prescription Drug Take Back Day event held Saturday, April 26.
Many citizens took advantage of this excellent outreach and prevention program by emptying their medicine cabinets and turning them in to KSP posts across the state.
Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.
KSP spokesman Sgt. Michael Webb says homes in Kentucky are safer after this Saturday’s Take Back event.
“If prescription drugs are left in the house, there is an opportunity for abuse of these medications,” says Webb. “This program gives citizens a safe method to dispose of unused or unwanted drugs without worrying they will fall into the wrong hands.”
In Kentucky, more than 1,000 people die each year from the abuse of powerful painkillers like Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. Kentucky is the fourth most medicated state in the country according to Forbes magazine and it has the nation's sixth-highest rate of prescription drug overdose deaths. More Kentuckians are dying from overdoses than traffic accidents.
For more information about the ‘Take Back’ program contact KSP at 502-782-1780 or visit the DEA website at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/
