Stay Safe with National Prescription Drug Take Back Day

Take unused drugs back October 28!

Billions of prescription drugs are in our drawers and medicine cabinets right now. Doctors wrote almost 4,000,000 prescriptions last year! While some of those are prescribed in hospitals, about half of us took a prescription drug in the last month. Many take three or more drugs on a regular basis.

Medicine is sometimes left hanging around for years. Many people stop taking their medications when they no longer think they need them. Maybe they don’t like the side effects or think they didn’t work. That can be dangerous! Some studies say that only 51 percent of people take their high blood pressure medication.

Medications help us live happier, more productive lives and we need to manage them properly. More than 33,000 people lost their lives to opioid abuse and addiction in 2015. We are in a national public health emergency.

Old and unused medications can harm. Stories of children and others finding and misusing prescription drugs are terrible reminders of our need to be careful.

Some prescription drugs to be particularly careful with are:

• codeine
• Xanax
• hydrocodone
• oxycodone
• morphine
• fentanyl

What You Can Do:

Help keep your loved ones safe!  On Saturday, October 28, you can take your old prescription drugs to a convenient location so they can be disposed of properly.

So far over 8.1 billion pounds of unused and expired drugs have been recovered! Find your location to take back your unneeded drugs by putting in your zip code.

We at Johnson & Groninger PLLC care about your safety! Subscribe to our newsletter for safety alerts.