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The best way to dispose of your old medications. As you will read

371 Tons of Rx Medicine Collected from DEA Take-Back Event on April 27

More than 742,000 pounds –371 tons – of prescription (Rx) medications were collected from members of the public at more than 5,800 locations throughout the country for the sixth Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-facilitated National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on April 27. To date, all six DEA Take-Back events have generated the collection of more than 2.8 million pounds (1,409 tons) of Rx medicines, safely removing them from circulation.

According to recently released data from the 2012 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), one in four teens (24 percent) reports having misused or abused an Rx drug at least once in their lifetime (up from 18 percent in 2008 to 24 percent in 2012), which translates to about 5 million teens. In addition, more than half of teens (56 percent) indicated that it’s easy to get Rx drugs from their parent’s medicine cabinet, and about half of parents (49 percent) say anyone can access their medicine cabinet.

Last Saturday’s drug collection initiative was a collaboration between the DEA and state and local law enforcement. Americans were urged to empty their medicine cabinets, kitchen drawers and bedside tables of Rx drugs that were expired or no longer needed, and bring them to one of thousands of designated disposal sites around the nation to help prevent the abuse and misuse of medicine. Saturday’s event collected 50 percent more pills than the previous one, demonstrating the need for a safe place where Americans can discard unwanted, unused or expired prescription drugs from their homes.

Visit The Medicine Abuse Project online to learn more about how to safely store, safeguard and properly dispose of medicines in your home.