Yuma, Arizona - The Yuma Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your pills for disposal to the Yuma Police Department, 1500 S. 1st Avenue on Saturday, October 28, 2017 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The service is free just pull into the police department’s parking lot and drop off your unwanted prescription drugs.
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.
Event details:
- The program is free and anonymous. You are encouraged to remove your personal information from the prescription labels, but not mandatory.
- Participants may dispose of medication in its original container or by removing the medication from its container and disposing of it directly into the disposal box.
- All expired or unwanted controlled, non-controlled, and over the counter medicines are accepted.
- Liquid products, such as cough syrup are not accepted by DEA, however the Yuma Police Department does accept it in their local drop-off prescription program. The liquid products should remain sealed in their original plastic container.
The following items are NOT accepted: Glass containers, Intra-venous solutions, injectables, syringes, inhalers and illegal substances such as marijuana or methamphetamines.