This Saturday Woodstock residents can participate in a program designed by the DEA’s “Office of Diversion Control” to collect old, expired or unused prescription medications from the nation’s medicine cabinets, drawers, shoes, purses.
Woodstock’s Police Department is offering safe disposal of pills and capsules (only) via a collection point at the Emergency Services Building this Saturday, October 29th from 10am-2pm. Bring your VILE!
The program is called “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” and addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. More than 7M Americans currently abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2009 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Each day, approximately 2,500 teens use prescriptions drugs to get high for the first time according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Studies who that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet.
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 
Posted by L.H. Russell on October 26, 2011 at 11:39
This program also keeps these unused Rx’s from getting into landfills and the water supply, so everyone benefits!
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Posted by Pat Crocker on October 26, 2011 at 17:45
L.H. Russell makes a great point. Many of us (count me in this us) may have thought that flushing old pills and expired over the counter meds was a safe way to dispose of them. But putting that stuff down the drain/toilet affects the residents of our rivers and streams and upsets the eco-system. Law enforcement provides us with a great public service by offering these take-back days. Thanks!
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Posted by Russell Pejouhy on October 27, 2011 at 07:14
What does the police dept. then do with the turned in Rx’s?
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Posted by Jackie Fischer, Executive Director of OCP on October 27, 2011 at 10:51
Thanks for posting this information about Prescription Drug Take Back Day! The program is sponsored by the DEA, and organized locally by the Windsor County Sheriff Mike Chamberlain. There are various sites around the county – mostly in town police departments. At 2:00, the sheriff’s office rounds up all the prescription drug ‘take-backs’ and ships them off to be incinerated.
This is an important awareness raising strategy about the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, as well as a good way to keep unused prescription drugs out of harms way.
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