DEA Take-Back Day was April 27, 2019.
Why? People keep lots of unused, unneeded and expired medications in their home. Having so many extra medications in the home is both a source of opioid medication diversion and a risk:
- People can can take them by accident and overdose.
- People can steal them to try and use them for unintended purposes.
- Children can get into all these extra pills and get hurt.
Your options for getting rid of this ‘Medication Clutter” include disposing of them yourself or getting rid of them through an established and safe way.
There are good on-line resources on how to do this yourself: the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has a website dedicated to this — Disposal of Unused Medicines: What You Should Know.
And here is their community poster for distribution:
The DEA also sets up annual Take-Back days. This year it was in April.
Yet again it was a broad success, collecting 469 tons of medications from people’s homes!
Take this month as an opportunity to look around your own homes and speak with your patients about cleaning up this “Medication Clutter”!