At-home medication disposal to address rise in overdoses – Gainesville Sun

Kathleen Roberts| Guest columnist

Data shows that 128 people die each day from the opioid crisis and now, drug deaths are 13% higher than in the first half of 2019, on average.

COVID-19 has brought challenges to every industry, community and person. The impact on our friends and neighbors dealing with substance misuse is no different. Since the start of the pandemic, and especially with orders to stay at home, we've seen an increase in behavioral health issues across our state as well as at the national level.

Similar to COVID-19, substance misuse is an issue we can address by working together. Traditionally in October, our statewide network of community coalitions partners with law enforcement as part of the DEAs National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. This event provides communities the opportunity to dispose of prescription medications in a safe, convenient and responsible means, while providing us the opportunity to educate the general public about substance misuse.

In October 2019, Florida hosted 219 collection sites, collecting 404,980 pounds of prescription drugs. Across the nation, Americans united to safely dispose of 12,699,456 pounds of medications.

This years Take Back Day looked very different in many communities, but it is still important that we properly dispose of expired medications or those we no longer use or want to ensure they dont end up in the wrong hands. The good news is there are easy ways to do this from the comfort of home.

When youre finished using a prescription medication as directed by your doctor, you should safely dispose of it rather than keep it in your medicine cabinet for future use. One way to do so is to mix household materials like cat litter or old coffee grounds with your unused medications, seal them in an airtight container and dispose of it in your trash can.

You can also visit your local drug take-back center these are often a drop box located at your local law enforcement office but you can find the closest one to you using the Drug Enforcement Agencys Controlled Substance Public Disposal Locations search tool.

Finally, one of our favorite ways: at-home disposal kits. These at-home disposal kits allow us to put unused or unwanted medications in the provided pouch, add water, seal and dispose of the now neutralized medications in the trash.

Through a partnership with the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative (RALI) of Florida, our network of community coalitions across the state will distribute an additional 65,000 at-home drug disposal kits in the coming weeks and months. This is in addition to the 50,000 at-home disposal kits we announced and distributed earlier this year through our partnership with RALI Florida.

While we all need to prioritize our safe disposal efforts, its also important to evaluate how we are storing medications we still need. As we spend more time at home, go through your medicine cabinets to make sure your prescription medications are in a locked or secure place and always out of the reach of children.

Together, we will get through this global health crisis, and at the same time, we can continue to work together to help create safe, drug-free communities for our children.

Kathleen Roberts is executive director of Community Coalition Alliance, a collaborative of community coalitions around the state of Florida.

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At-home medication disposal to address rise in overdoses - Gainesville Sun