Contact: Morgan Tubbs
STARKVILLE, Miss.--From 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday [Sept. 27], a prescription drug "take-back" will be held on the Drill Field at Mississippi State University.
Free, anonymous and open to all, the service is being organized by the MSU Police Department and campus Health and Wellness Center, in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Officials said the goal is to prevent pill abuse and theft by disposing of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
In April, Americans turned in more than 270 tons of prescription drugs at over 5,600 sites operated by the DEA and nearly 4,300 state and local law enforcement partners. During four earlier take-back events, nearly 775 tons of pills were received.
In 2010, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act to help counteract, in part, the problem of prescription drugs languishing in home cabinets that are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Alarmingly high rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S., along with a rising number of accidental poisonings and overdoses, also enabled federal and local law enforcement agencies to operate the National Take-Back Initiative on a continuing basis.
Mississippi State is online at www.msstate.edu.
For more on the MSU event, telephone the MSU Police Department at 662-325-2121 or Health and Wellness Center at 325-7545. For more on National Take-Back Initiative, visit www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/ .