Elmhurst Police Hold Drug Take-Back Day in Light of National Overdose Epidemic

In light of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls a nation-wide “overdose epidemic,” the Elmhurst Police Department will be holding a prescription drug take-back day Dec. 3.

On that Saturday, anyone can drop off unwanted prescription drugs and medication between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the west parking lot by the Elmhurst police station. These drugs can be expired, unused or simply unwanted, and policemen will be on hand to collect them for safe destruction, the City of Elmhurst website states. If flushed down the toilets or thrown into the garbage, these drugs can contaminate the water supply.

“Unused and/or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue and can also lead to accidental poisoning, abuse and/or overdose,” the site reads. “The non-medical use of prescription drugs is one of the most common forms of drug abuse in America, mainly by teenagers, who take them from the home medicine cabinets of family and friends.”

Indeed, opioids — including prescription opioid painkillers and heroin — killed more than 28,000 people in 2014, the CDC states. That’s more than any other year on record, and more than half of all those cases involved prescription drugs.

Many doctors will prescribe opioids to treat severe pain after surgeries or in cancer cases. In fact, it’s become increasingly acceptable to also prescribe these strong drugs in the cases of moderate, chronic pain like backaches or osteoarthritis, the CDC says.

When patients become addicted to opioids and the prescriptions become too expensive to feed that addiction, many will turn to heroin, which is a cheaper alternative.

In 2014 alone, CDC reported, nearly two million Americans either abused or were dependent on prescription opioid painkillers.

If you’re unable to drop off your prescription drugs Dec. 3, there’s also a drug collection box in the police department lobby that’s open anytime. For further information, call the Elmhurst Police Department's non-emergency line at 630-530-3050.

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