Need to Trash Your Unwanted Meds?

You may have heard of the prescription “Drug Take-Back” events North Kingstown and other cities and towns have held sporadically over the past few years. Now, North Kingstown will have a permanent spot for residents to properly discard of their unwanted, expired or unused medications.

North Kingstown’s Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition – Working Together for Wellness – and the North Kingstown Police Department have teamed up and acquired a Med Return Unit to be housed at the police department on Post Road. This drug collection unit looks to expand the “take-back” initiative in North Kingstown beyond its current episodic campaign by providing a permanent and regular location where medications can be safely disposed of.

Acceptable items for deposit include:

• Prescription medications and samples,
• All over-the-counter medications,
• Vitamins,
• Pet medications,
• And medicated ointments.

Items not acceptable for deposit:

• Thermometers/sharps/syringes,
• IV bags,
• Bloody or infectious waste,
• Hydrogen peroxide,
• Aerosol cans,
• Inhalers
• And EpiPens.

The National Take Back Initiative, started by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, helps to provide communities with venues to dispose of these drugs and help minimize a growing public health issue – prescription drug abuse.

“It really is an emerging issue and becoming an epidemic,” said Kathy Yeager of Working Together For Wellness during last year’s campaign. “It’s so important to not keep prescription drugs in cabinets, on counters or on the kitchen sink and to keep them locked up somewhere.”

According to DEA figures, more than seven million Americans currently abuse prescription drugs and each day 2,500 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet.

Starting Friday, June 8 at 11 a.m., the Med Return – Drug Collection Unit will be operational and available in the lobby of the Public Safety Complex at 8166 Post Road – 24 hours a day.