DEA: Pharmacies can serve as drop-off points for unused prescription drugs

WASHINGTON — Calling prescription drug addiction an “urgent and growing threat” to our nation’s public health, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced a new Drug Enforcement Administration regulation that would allow pharmacies, hospitals, clinics and other authorized collectors to serve as authorized drop-off sites for unused prescription drugs. Under the new policy, long-term care facilities also will be able to collect controlled substances turned in by residents of those facilities, and prescription drug users everywhere will have permission to directly mail in their unused medications to authorized collectors.

 

“[P]rescription drug addiction and abuse represent nothing less than a public health crisis,” the Attorney General said in a video message posted on the Justice Department’s website. “Every day, this crisis touches — and devastates — the lives of Americans from every state, in every region and from every background and walk of life,” he said. 

 

“The Department of Justice has taken aggressive steps to fight back — by targeting the illegal supply chain; by disrupting so-called 'pill mills'; and by expanding public health, education and law enforcement efforts," Holder continued. "But we also recognize that much of this work must start at home. Nearly 4-in-10 teens who have misused or abused a prescription drug have obtained it from their parents’ medicine cabinet."

 

The new policy builds on existing take-back programs launched by the DEA. A recent take-back event coordinated by the DEA last April resulted in the safe return of 390 tons of prescription drugs at nearly 6,100 sites. Over the last four years, the DEA and other partnering organizations have taken in more than 4.1 million pounds — or more than 2,100 tons — of prescription pills.  

 

The DEA’s next take-back event will be on Sept. 27, 2014.