DEA, Arizona law enforcers team up for prescription drugs take back day
Apr 26, 2019, 6:30 PM
(Getty Images/Chris Hondros)
(Getty Images/Chris Hondros)
PHOENIX – Federal drug officials will sponsor, for a ninth year, a day for Arizonans to legally and safely dispose of leftover drugs in their homes.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is set for Saturday. In metro Phoenix, police from Avondale, Chandler, El Mirage, Fort McDowell, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, and deputies from Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will be collecting old medications at designated sites from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Turning in unused or expired drugs ensures “they’re not abused or they don’t get in the wrong hands,” James Carroll, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Friday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.
Carroll has been in the post informally known the nation’s drug czar since January.
“President (Donald) Trump told me what I needed to do: one of them is reducing the amount of prescriptions that are written … but making sure at the same time that people that need them can get access to them,” Carroll said.
DEA officials said last year’s Take Back Day brought in over 900,000 pounds of medication across the country.
Since the twice-a-year program began, the agency said it has collected nearly 11 million pounds of unneeded prescription drugs.
Before last’s year fall event, Arizonans had turned in more than 144,000 pounds of drugs since 2010.
