Kennesaw State’s Department of Public Safety and University Police participated in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Saturday, Oct. 26, where students and the surrounding community could drop off unused prescription drugs.
Alcohol and other drug prevention education coordinator for KSU’s Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery Lindsay Montgomery said few drop boxes for drugs exist around the Kennesaw community, which emphasizes the importance of ones that exist at KSU.
“Medication drop boxes are few and far between,” Montgomery said. “There are very few places near KSU in which people can properly dispose of any unused or unwanted medications in a safe way.”
KSU offers prescription drug drop-off boxes to the wider Kennesaw community on NPDTBD as well as year-round. These drop boxes are available to the public 24 hours a day, every day.
Located in the lobbies of KSU’s police stations on both the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses are boxes where anyone, including non-students, can drop off unused prescription drugs.
According to Sarasota Medical Health, unused prescription drugs are often lost, stolen and/or misused. NPDTBD works to help prevent this by helping to stop the flow of unneeded prescription drugs into communities. Montgomery also said that it is also a significant substance abuse prevention method.
Montgomery said that when potentially harmful prescription medication is safely removed from the community, citizens are spared of both personal harm and the environmental detriment that comes with throwing away or flushing prescription medication improperly.
“Because some medications can be misused and can be addictive if not taken as directed by a healthcare professional, it is important to remove these drugs from the community,” Montgomery said. “Having unused medications easily accessible can increase the likelihood of people misusing them, or self-medicating in a potentially dangerous way.”
NPDTBD directly decreases the environmental impact of improperly disposed of prescription drugs, including contamination of water supply and negative effects upon marine life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NPDTBD is a semi-annual initiative that occurs in the months of October and April. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency started this initiative in Fall 2010, according to a DEA press release. The day allows people to dispose of their unused prescription drugs in a safe and legal way as the prescription drugs are disposed of safely by state government agencies.
During the April Take Back Day, the DEA reported having collected over 469 tons of unwanted drugs.
The October occurrence of NPDTBD corresponds with National Substance Abuse Prevention Month.
