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SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns emptied their medicine cabinets and dropped off their expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs at different spots throughout the state as part of the second “National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration partnered with the National Association of Attorneys General and other government agencies with this initiative in an attempt to prevent increased pill abuse and theft.
Utah’s No. 1 drug problem is prescription drug abuse, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said.
We have more deaths in Utah from accidental overdoses of prescription drugs than those who are killed in traffic accidents.
–Mark Shurtleff
"We have more deaths in Utah from accidental overdoses of prescription drugs than those who are killed in traffic accidents," he said.
Angie Watson knows firsthand the effects drug abuse can have on a person. Her 13-year-old son died of an accidental overdosed of Oxycodone in December. She says parents need to be aware of this growing problem.
“We tend to hold on to them just in case something happens,” she said, “and it’s not worth the consequences. It’s not worth having them in your home.”
Since 2000, the number of deaths due to overdose of prescription pain medication has increased over 400 percent, according to the Utah Department of Health.
"Proper disposal is essential to curbing prescription drug abuse," said St. George Police Chief Marlon Stratton.
At the Smiths in Cottonwood Heights, more than 200 pounds of prescriptions drugs were dropped off.
The DEA will destroy all the drugs that were collected.
For more information to prevent and reduce the misuse and abuse of prescription pain medications go to www.useonlyasdirected.org.
Email:vvo-duc@ksl.com
