Drug Enforcement Agency to hold Prescription Drug Pick-Up Campaign on Sept. 27th
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Eagle Pass Police Department, and the Maverick County Sheriff’s Department are jointly holding a prescription drug collection drive on Saturday, September 27, 2014, at the International Bank of Commerce (IBC Bank) located at 2395 East Main Street, in front of the Maverick County Lake, from 8:00 A.M. to 2:30 P.M..
The purpose for collecting old, expired and leftover prescription drug medications is to assure that these medications are properly disposed of and are not misused in a manner which they are not intended for. Misuse or abuse of old and leftover prescription drug medications may cause harm, including death, to those who take medications for whom they were not prescribed to.
Prescription drug abuse and overdoses have become a growing epidemic throughout the United States, including Maverick County. “There is a prescription drug abuse epidemic taking place in this country. This epidemic is present in every state and affects everyone, regardless of race, gender, education or income,” said Jeanne D Waggener, President of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy.
The most abused medications are painkillers according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nationally, sales of prescription painkillers per capita have quadrupled since 1999 and the number of fatal poisonings due to prescription painkillers has also quadrupled. Enough prescription painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult continually for a month.
Texas has the eighth lowest drug overdose mortality rate in the United States in 2013 with 9.6 per 100,000 people suffering drug overdose fatalities, according to a new report titled “Prescription Drug Abuse: Strategies to Stop the Epidemic.”
In Texas, drug overdose deaths, a majority of which are from prescription drugs, increased by 78 percent since 1999 when the rate was 5.4 per 100,000. Nationally, rates have doubled in 29 states since 1999, quadrupled in four of states, and tripled in 10 states.
“Fifty Americans die a day from prescription drug overdoses, and more than six million suffer from prescription drug abuse disorders. This is a very real epidemic and warrants a strong public health response,” said Dr. Andrea Gielen, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. “We must use the best lessons we know from other public health and injury prevention success stories to work in partnership with clinical care, law enforcement, the business community, community-based organizations, and other partners to work together to curb this crisis.”
The Eagle Pass community is invited and encouraged to participate in the prescription drug pickup campaign by bringing their unused or old prescription medications to the joint prescription drug pick-up campaign this Saturday, September 27th, at the main IBC Bank branch at 2395 East Main Street in Eagle Pass from 8 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. Everyone should help stop prescription drug abuse and overdoses in Maverick County.
