DOINews: D.C. Metro Area Employees: DOI Prescription Drug Take Back Day on September 24

09/19/2014
Last edited 09/05/2019
On September 24, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the Office of Law Enforcement and Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give DOI employees, neighboring agencies, as well as the public, their ninth opportunity to dispose of expired or unwanted prescription drugs. The collection location in the Bison Bistro Cafeteria will be available to receive your drugs. (The DEA cannot accept liquids, needles, or sharps — only pills or patches.) The service is free and anonymous — no questions asked.
Logo for Federal Employee Take Back Program - Got Drugs?
On September 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., DOI D.C.-area employees can bring unused or expired medications for disposal to the Main Interior Building's Bison Bistro Cafeteria in front of the IDRA store.
Last April, Americans turned in 390 tons (over 780,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at nearly 6,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 4,400 of its state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in its eight previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 4.1 million pounds — than 2,100 tons — of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines — flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash — both pose potential safety and health hazards.
DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or their family member or pet owner) of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents' controlled substances in certain instances.
The Federal Agency Pharmaceutical Take Back event is being conducted by the Washington Division in the National Capital Region only. For more information, please contact Valerie Jacobs, DOI Office of Law Enforcement and Security, at valerie_jacobs@ios.doi.gov; 202-208-4090.
Sept. 19, 2014

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