The Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) and Farmville Police Department (FPD) will join forces once again for the seventh National Drug Take-Back Initiative on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Midtown Square.
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration press release, the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health reported that over six million Americans abuse prescription medications.
The press release further reported that the administration’s National Drug Take-Back Initiatives are part of the White House’s prescription drug abuse prevention strategy, which the Office of National Drug Control Policy released in 2011.
Officer James Thorpe, who coordinates the event for the LUPD, said the police departments work with the DEA twice a year to collect and dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs from anonymous citizens. Sergeant Chris Moss is the primary National Drug Take- Back Initiative coordinator for the FPD.
Thorpe said the initiative is important because “every bit of that that’s not being used that we collect won’t be out on the streets.”
Individuals who drop off their unused or expired prescription drugs on collection day do not have to exit their vehicles, which Thorpe said accommodates “people who have mobility problems” and helps the collection remain anonymous.
According to an FPD press release about the Take-Back Initiative, individuals can drop off prescription drugs with “no questions asked.” To maintain anonymity, citizens are recommended to remove container labels or drop loose drugs into the collection box with the exception of liquid medications, which should be sealed in their respective containers. The departments will not accept intravenous solutions, injectables and syringes.
Thorpe said the collection box will be transported to the Appomattox police headquarters. From that location, the drugs will go to incinerators in Virginia Beach and Washington, D.C.
The LUPD, according to Thorpe, first participated in the initiative in September 2010, collecting medications on Brock Commons. He said the event was not broadly advertised. With the aid of a DEA agent, the LUPD collected 12 pounds overall.
In April 2011, Thorpe said the LUPD and FPD began coordinating the collection together, as they “decided it was in our best interest to do combined instead of separate drops.” The departments collected 34 pounds of drugs that spring.
Thorpe said the police departments have taken part in the initiative twice a year since 2011. Since 2010, the area police departments have collected about 300 pounds of drugs. The departments collected 121 pounds last April, bringing in the area’s largest total yet.
Thorpe said the departments were “shocked” by the influx of drugs collected in April. However, Thorpe said, “I’d like to see these numbers grow.”
Thorpe believes prescription drug abuse is such a problem because, in part, “people are getting hooked on drugs simply from medicine cabinets.”
Some people, according to Thorpe, are aware of the medications their neighbors’ illnesses require and break into their medicine cabinets. He said prescription drugs that cause allergic reactions, which cannot be legally taken back to the pharmacy, can also be an issue.
“As long as the drugs are sitting in the cabinet not being used or monitored, the temptation’s there,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe mentioned a recent situation on Longwood’s campus where an individual allegedly attempted to sell his grandfather’s painkillers as an example of prescription drugs getting into the wrong hands.
Prescription medications are difficult to dispose of in general, Thorpe mentioned, as flushing them down the toilet is not permitted and can hurt the water system.
