MURFREESBORO — Got
drugs? Got drugs you need to dispose of properly?
The third MTSU Prescription Drug Take-Back Day will be held
from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 24, on campus.
The drug take-back event will be held at the drive-up
location next to the Campus Pharmacy drive-thru on the south side of the
Student Health, Wellness and Campus Recreation Center on Blue Raider Drive. A
printable campus map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap13-14.
Representatives
will be accepting unused, expired or unwanted prescription and over-the-counter
medicines for proper disposal.
No sharps —
needles, scalpels, syringes and other sharp objects — will be accepted this
time. Event organizers request that when possible, try to keep medicines in
their original packaging, mark out any personal information, but leave the name
of the medication visible on the label.
“In
each of its two previous take-back events, the MTSU community has turned in
approximately 30 pounds of medicines for disposal,” said Lisa Schrader,
director of MTSU Health Promotion. “We have been incredibly pleased with these
amounts, considering how new these events still are and how much confusion
still exists regarding proper disposal processes.”
Schrader
said she and other event organizers “consistently get thank-you notes and calls
from campus community members who appreciate having such a convenient way to
dispose of their unwanted medicines.”
MTSU
Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is a collaboration between Public Safety,
Campus Pharmacy, Health Services and Health Promotion. Students from the
Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy will be among the collection
representatives for the third time.
Drug take-back
initiatives address a vital public safety and public health issue. Prescription
drugs that languish in home medicine cabinets are highly susceptible to
diversion, misuse and abuse.
Nationally,
1,700 tons of medicines have been disposed of through drug take-back events since
2010.
Public
health officials say the rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are
alarmingly high. About 6.8 million Americans currently abuse prescription drugs
than the number of those using cocaine, heroine and other illegal drugs.
For
more information, call 615-494-8704 or 615-494-8900, or visit the Drug
Enforcement Association website at http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.shtml.
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