Is your medicine cabinet full of expired drugs or medications you no longer use? Your medicine is for you. What’s safe for you might be harmful for someone else.
According to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6 million Americans misused controlled prescription drugs. The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.
To prevent this from happening you can safely dispose of your expired, unwanted, or unused medicines through a drug take back program.
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is April 27th
The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue by providing a safe, convenient, and responsible way to dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs.
The last Take-Back Day brought in more than 900,000 pounds of unused or expired prescription medication. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by DEA since the fall of 2010 to 10,878,950 pounds.
You can learn more about this effort at National Take Back Day
Click on this link to locate a drop off site near you: takebackday.dea.gov
If you have any questions please contact Peggy Matteson at pmatteson@ricucc.org.
Peggy Matteson, PhD, RN-BC, is the Health Ministry Consultant for the Rhode Island Conference, United Church of Christ
According to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6 million Americans misused controlled prescription drugs. The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.
To prevent this from happening you can safely dispose of your expired, unwanted, or unused medicines through a drug take back program.
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is April 27th
The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue by providing a safe, convenient, and responsible way to dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs.
The last Take-Back Day brought in more than 900,000 pounds of unused or expired prescription medication. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by DEA since the fall of 2010 to 10,878,950 pounds.
You can learn more about this effort at National Take Back Day
Click on this link to locate a drop off site near you: takebackday.dea.gov
If you have any questions please contact Peggy Matteson at pmatteson@ricucc.org.
Peggy Matteson, PhD, RN-BC, is the Health Ministry Consultant for the Rhode Island Conference, United Church of Christ
Author

Peggy Matteson
Peggy Matteson is a Commissioned Minister of Congregational Health