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Results of the First-Ever Nationwide Prescription Drug Take-Back Day
The first ever nationwide Prescription Drug Take-Back event was held on Saturday, September 25, 2010. Multiple locations throughout Upper  Bucks County were manned by the Drug Enforcement Administration, local police departments (Quakertown Borough, Richland Township, Springfield Township, Dublin Borough and Perkasie Borough), the District Attorneys Office and board members, staff and volunteers of Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Coalition.
Community members dropped off medications at various local collection sites where any sensitive and personal information was kept undisclosed and confidential at the time of drop-off. The police departments collected the medications and members of the UBHCHY coalition handed out information about UBHCHY and tips on how to properly dispose of medications. Each location was overwhelmed by the positive response to the collection efforts and in total, 850 pounds of prescription medications were collected throughout all of Bucks County--the highest total weight collected not only in the Philadelphia region, but in all of the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania contributed a total of approximately 2.5 tons of prescription medication toward the DEA's incineration.
To read more about this event click here
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The Prescription Drug Take-Back: How it Started
The original concept for a Drug Take-Back Day was conceived at a Drug Free Communities Workshop in Washington, DC in September 2009. Ray Fox, UBHCHY Director, was in attendance and learned that other Pennsylvania counties and states across the US are already invloved in facilitating Prescription Drug Take-Back programs and had seen enormous success in retrieving drugs from the street and away from teenagers.
The purpose of a Drug Take Back program is two-fold. - One purpose of the take-back is to get outdated and unused medications out of the medicine cabinets in homes. This is crucial because the Board Members of the UBHCHY Coalition, individuals involved in the anti-drug coalitions across the country and our very own parents, grandparents, teachers and other community members are painfully and increasingly aware that youth are taking drugs out of their homes and the homes of others (family members and friends) and are using or selling them illegally. This is especially true of prescription drugs that are used as pain killers (like Oxycontin, Percocet, Darvocet, Vicodin). In the most recent Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth survey results (2010 Student Support Card), UBHCHY Coalition uncovered that both the illegal use and sale of prescription drugs by Bucks County teens is becoming more and more of a problem too close to home.
- The second purpose of the take-back day is to dispose of prescription medicines properly and safely. The chemicals in the drugs are showing up more and more in the water that we drink. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is very concerned about this problem. Much of this is because the community has incorrectly believed that the best way to get rid of unused or unwanted medication is to flush them down the toilet. The medications collected on the Prescription Drug Take-Back days are incinerated thus preventing them from entering our water supply.
For more information about UBHCHY Coalition's Prescription Drug Take-Back initiative click here |
