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Prescription Drug ‘Take Back’ Day Collection Has Large Turnout
By: Associated Press, Rachel Bailey
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In the midst of an increasingly difficult fight against prescription drug abuse, Ohio and West Virginia residents returned more than 30,000 pounds of unwanted prescriptions during a bi-annual drug take-back day.
The national prescription drug "Take Back" day was held last Saturday and enabled organizers to collect more than 26,000 pounds of prescription medication in Ohio, and nearly 4,800 pounds in West Virginia.
"Take Back" days are held twice a year to encourage people to dispose of unwanted, unused and expired pills at designated locations.
Ohio has been fighting prescription painkiller addictions and overdose deaths for several years, after seeing soaring rates of prescription drug abuse.
Ohio University-Lancaster's campus acted as a designated location for the day. According to a release, the Fairfield County drop-off site collected more than 113,000 pills, 8 percent of which were labeled narcotics.
Saturday's collection in West Virginia yielded a more than 1,000 pound increase in collections compared with the collection held last October.
More than 5,000 sites nationwide participated in the "Take Back" day.