Vermilion/Municipal Task Force collects 90 pounds of expired prescription drugs

The Vermilion/Municipal Task Force accepted 90 pounds of expired prescription drugs during a collection last weekend.
The free service allowed parish residents to anonymously turn in expired prescription drugs. The collection took place at locations in Abbeville and Kaplan.
Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon, Abbeville Police Chief Tony Hardy, Kaplan Police  Chief Boyd Adams, and the Vermilion Municipal Narcotics Task Force would like to thank the people of Vermilion Parish for their overwhelming support in the Drug Take Back day this past Saturday.
With the community support, the Task Force collected 90 pounds of pills, which will be turned over for destruction.
By turning over unused prescription pills, this elevates the possibility of them falling into the wrong hands or worse, becoming a target for drug burglaries.
 The Task force will make this an annual event but if any people find themselves in need of destroying unused pills in the future they may contact the Task Force at 740-4501 and speak to an agent.
Last April, Americans turned in 371 tons (over 742,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at over 5,800 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners.  In previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 2.8 million pounds-more than 1,400 tons-of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.
Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.  Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines-flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash-both pose potential safety and health hazards.
DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or pet or their family member or owner) of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them.  The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.