DRUG TAKE-BACK DAY, SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011.

Help protect family members as well as the environment and our watersheds by safely getting rid of unused prescription and over-the-counter medications. The Jefferson County Sheriff's office is joining with other Front-Range law enforcement agencies in a national drug Take-Back Day. Please visit the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office website for more information on this program.

http://www.jeffco.us/sheriff/sheriff_T62_R294.htm

Turn in your unused or expired medications for safe disposal.

On April 30, 2011, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office will be joining law enforcement agencies nationwide to remove potentially dangerous controlled substances from our nation’s medicine cabinets. The DEA's National Take-Back Day provides an opportunity for the public to surrender expired, unwanted, or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications for destruction. These drugs are a potential source of supply for illegal use and an unacceptable risk to public health and safety.

Sheriff's representatives will be set up at three drop-off locations across the county.

Saturday, April 30
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Three locations in unincorporated Jeffco:

Jefferson County Administration and Courts Building
Dakota Ridge High School
Home Depot, 1014 El Rancho Road, Evergreen

For more locations, visit the Department of Justice website.
http://usdoj1.reachlocal.net/index.html

This one-day effort is intended to bring national focus to the issue of increasing pharmaceutical controlled substance abuse.

The program is anonymous.
Prescription and over-the-counter solid dosage medications, (tablets and capsules) are accepted.
Intravenous solutions, injectables, and needles will not be accepted.
Illicit substances such as marijuana or methamphetamine are not a part of this initiative.

I'm curious why people don't do what I do and just flush them or toss them in the trash?

If you flush them there is a very real chance of them getting back to the watershed. Most municipal treatment plants dont treat for them. If you are on septic, it can go right to the watershed depending on how well your system works.

I like the trash method, but there will always be the hardcore folks that will go through your trash/landfill for pills. If you're gonna trash it, make them unusable by soaking in liquids, food scraps or coffee grounds.

http://www.drinktap.org/consumerdnn/Default.aspx?tabid=73

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products, known in the water industry as PPCPs, are a group of compounds consisting of human and veterinary drugs (prescription or over the counter) and consumer products, such as fragrance, lotions, sun-screens, house cleaning products, and others. These compounds have been detected in trace amounts in surface water, drinking water and wastewater effluent sampling conducted in both Europe and the U.S.

PPCPs can be introduced into the environment in several ways, including:

Flushing unused medications down the toilet or sink.
Rinsing personal hygiene and household cleaning products down the drain.
Excreting unabsorbed medications into the sewage system.
Farm animals excreting veterinary drugs, including hormones and antibiotics, into fields where they run off into lakes and streams.
Commercial improper disposal methods.

Just take 'em before they go bad.

I have a small drawer full of old epipens......I get a new one every one-two years because they do expire and I have been lucky enough not to have needed to use it in many years....I cannot find anywhere to take the old ones to dispose of them. The pharmacy won't take them, the dr's office won't take them, programs like the one here won't take them.....so they just keep building up.....I really don't want to just throw them out.

Do you have a neighbor that you don't like?

Take them to the local fire station and ask the paramedics to drop them in their sharps container.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/267263-how-to-dispose-of-an-epipen/

Bump. This is today.