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Community Corner

Saturday Is Prescription Drug Take Back Day

Bring your unused drugs to the Clinton Police Dept. on Saturday

By Marcy Beatty

 Prescription Drug Take-Back day is this Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 10 am until 2 pm at the Clinton Police Station, 170 East Main in Clinton, CT.   It is a free service and is open to the general public: no questions asked.

“Please bring in your expired, unused or unwanted prescription drugs, and we’ll be sure they are disposed of safely,” says Major Tom Lucas, Police Officer and Coordinator of the Clinton Drug Take Back Day. “We know that prescription drug abuse is on the rise across the country, particularly with teens. The more we can do to limit access—especially at home, the healthier our youth and our community will be.” 

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Each day, approximately, 2,500 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time and a majority of the prescriptions are obtained from family and friends, from home medicine cabinets.

 Discarding the medicines in the trash, however, is not the answer.   Adding prescription drugs to landfills or flushing them down the toilet contaminates our groundwater and poses other safety and health hazards.  

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Working with the Senior Center, the Madison Police Department has made arrangements to safely store and deliver unwanted/unused prescriptions obtained from senior citizens unable to make the trip to Clinton. 

 “This initiative is a win-win.  We are very excited about the town-wide and community partnerships and have high hopes for future collaborations between Shoreline communities that are good for the towns, good for the kids and good for the environment,” says Laurie E. Ruderfer, Coalition Coordinator for Madison Alcohol & Drug Education Coalition (M.A.D.E. in Madison).

The DEA held the first ever National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in September, 2010. This effort was a huge success in removing potentially dangerous prescription drugs and controlled substances from our nation's medicine cabinets. Americans turned in more than 121 tons of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by the DEA with the support of over 3,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.

 For more information about the Prescription Drug Take Back event visit www.MadeinMadison.org or www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov

This event is co-sponsored by M.A.D.E. in Madison, the Town of Madison, the Clinton Police Department, The First Selectman’s Task Force on Substance Abuse in Clinton, the CT River Area Health District and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in a nationwide prescription drug ''Take-Back'' day in an effort to help prevent increased pill abuse and theft.

Marcy Beatty is co-coordinator of M.A.D.E.

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