Elmhurst Police Department to Participate in National Drug Take-Back Day

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is next Saturday, and the Elmhurst Police Department is taking part.

Oct. 22 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., according to the DEA, police departments and other city sites will be collecting expired, unwanted and unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs and destroying them.

All drugs and containers will be incinerated, so, since the drug take-back program is anonymous, participants don’t need to worry about taking labels off of drug containers or switching containers before bringing their drugs to the collection sites.

The program is entirely free.

This will be the DEA’s 12th annual Drug Take-Back Day. During the May 2016 event, according to DEA statistics, partners around the U.S. collected 447 tons of pills.

The DEA creates these events in an effort to relieve prescription drug abuse in the country, since rates of drug abuse are at record-highs. Opioids especially, the DEA states, are used medically but become addictive and, when patients don’t have access to or can’t afford the prescription drugs anymore, they turn to illegal drugs like heroin.

The majority of prescription drug abusers report in surveys that they get their drugs from friends and family. Americans understand that cleaning out old prescription drugs from medicine cabinets, kitchen drawers, and bedside tables reduces accidents, thefts, and the misuse and abuse of these medicines, including the opioid painkillers that accounted for 20,808 drug overdoses—78 a day—in 2014 (the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Eight out of 10 new heroin users began by abusing prescription painkillers and moved to heroin when they could no longer obtain or afford those painkillers.

Collection sites will not be collecting liquid products, intravenous solutions, syringes, needles, inhalers or air cylinders Oct. 22.

The Chicago Recovery Alliance does offer free, legal syringe exchanges as well as healthcare assistance, HIV antibody and hepatitis A, B and C testing and addiction treatment daily. Dates, times and locations are available here.

Read more about National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on the DEA’s website.

Sites near Elmhurst — other than the Elmhurst Police Department — collecting drugs Oct. 22:

• Villa Park Police Department: 40 S. Ardmore, Villa Park, IL
• Lombard Police Department: 235 E. Wilson, Lombard, IL
• Village of Westchester (lobby): 10300 Roosevelt Rd., Westchester, IL
• Hinsdale Police Department: 121 Symonds Dr., Hinsdale, IL
• Cook County Sheriff's Office (Maywood Court House): 1500 Maybrook Dr., Maywood, IL

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