Full Notification

Saturday, April 26, 2014 between 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

The Santa Clara Police Department and Kaiser Hospital will join with the Drug Enforcement Administration and offer the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by disposing their of dangerous, expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Members of the community are invited to drop off medications for disposal at the designated locations outside the Santa Clara Police Department and at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

Last October, Americans turned in 324 tons (over 647,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at over 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in its seven previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 3.4 million pounds—more than 1,700 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 their family member or pet 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.

Additional information is available online at www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugdisposal/takeback.

Lieutenant Kurt Clarke
Santa Clara Police Department
Administrative Services Division
601 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, Ca. 95050, (408) 615-4865