Du Quoin Police 'Take Back' program this Saturday

The Du Quoin Police Department this Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. will host a "Take Back" event where the public can drop off unused prescription medications at the department. It is located on East Poplar Street just east of the intersection of Washington and Poplar Streets in Du Quoin.

The drugs will be boxed and shipped to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Last year, the Du Quoin Police Department collected 58 pounds of prescription drugs.

Chief of Police Jamie Ellermeyer said his department has also posted flyers about the event across the community.

After collecting more than 1,700 tons of expired, unwanted prescription medications over the past three-and-a-half years, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and more than 4,200 national, tribal, and community law enforcement partners will hold another National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 26.

Americans will be taking their pills to one of over 5,600 collection sites across the country between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

The public has embraced the opportunity these Take-Back Day events provide to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, or unwanted prescription drugs. Last October Americans turned in 324 tons (over 647,000 pounds) of prescription drugs. Since DEA's first event in September 2010, the public has surrendered over 3.4 million pounds of pills.

Unused medications in homes create a public health and safety concern, because they are highly susceptible to accidental ingestion, theft, misuse, and abuse.

Almost twice as many Americans (6.8 million) currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and inhalants combined, according to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. And more Americans died in 2010 from overdoses of prescription medications (22,134, including 16,651 from narcotic painkillers) than from motor vehicle accidents, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveys of users have found that the majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.