News
Find media contact for take back your meds. Read the latest news stories about medicine take-back in our community.
A daylong, nationwide effort to get people to turn in old or unwanted prescription drugs collected more than 121 tons of unused medicine. With prescription drug abuse on the rise, the goal was to keep the drugs from falling into the hands of abusers and criminals. Read more...
In a four-hour take-back last Saturday (Sept. 25), Seattle Police Department collect 435 pounds of medicines. Read more...
Many residents in Puyallup, Kent and in other Washington communities safely returned their unwanted, expired prescription and over-the-counter medicines on Saturday's DEA take-back day. These efforts keep unwanted medicines away from our teens and children, out of our homes and out of the environment. Read more...
Teen medicine addiction often starts at home. Each day in America, 6,000 teenagers are using prescription drugs to get high for the first time, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says. Read more...
According to the DEA, 2,500 teens experiment with drugs by taken from the medicine cabinet. Some of these experiments lead to a life-long addiction. The DEA, recognizing the great need for households to rid their homes of unwanted medicines is sponsoring a one-day take-back day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 25th. Read more... Read more...
DEA one-day take back in response to increased crime related to medicines in people's homes and accidental deaths from medicines. Read more...
Prescription drugs are now involved in most drug deaths in Washington, and one easy place to find them is the home medicine cabinet. U.S. DEA is offering a one-day take back event to collect these unwanted medicines on September 25th. Read more... Read more...
Nine kids were hospitalized and two others could face drug charges after a pill-popping scare at Bremerton's Mountain View Middle School. The nine affected were taken to the hospital earlier Tuesday after taking prescription medication. Read more...
EPA is lending its support for a DEA-sponsored drug take-back day. Removing unused medications from households can help prevent intentional misuse and unintentional poisonings of children and pets. Read more...
A grieving father shares his story of his son’s accidental overdose; his addiction started with prescription medicines. Read more...
"A lot of the pharmaceuticals sold on the street or consumed by young people come out of home medicine cabinets," said Terry Keefe, chief of police in Layton, a city of 65,000. "This is one attempt to reduce the availability of these type of drugs." Read more...
Today in Washington State more people are dying from prescription drug abuse than from car crashes. Prescription drugs - used incorrectly - are killing more people in King County than all other illegal drugs, combined. Read more...
Six local pharmacies in Bellingham are currently accepting unwanted and expired medications for secure, appropriate and legal disposal. Collection will protect public health and the environment by preventing accidental poisoning and reducing medications entering Bellingham Bay via down-the-drain disposal. Read more...
Addictive prescription painkillers were mixed with diet pills, antacids, cough syrups and vitamins. Left in a medicine cabinet, the unused medications could have been deadly or abused. Flushed down a toilet or thrown away in a landfill, the drugs could have polluted drinking water and wildlife habitat. Read more...
What's needed is a comprehensive program, funded by the pharmaceutical industry, that will not only build on existing efforts to educate the public on what to do with unused prescription drugs, but also offer lots of secure, easily accessed sites to drop them off. Read more...
Improper disposal of prescription medication can lead to poisoning, drug abuse and harm to the environment. To remedy this, the Issaquah Police Department is working with the community to establish a prescription drug disposal program that is easy to use and effective. Read more...
A new report on drug use in King County shows that the number of people dying from prescription–type opiate overdoses is growing. Of the 253 drug overdoses in 2009, more than half involved prescription–type pain killers like OxyContin. That's almost eight times higher than in 1997. Read more...
It's time to clean out your medicine cabinet. But, you might be wondering, what is the best way to dispose of these chemicals? Do not flush them down the toilet: They'll end up polluting local waterways. Read more...
