By Patrick Mcardle
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Almost 60 sites in Vermont will accept unused and expired medication during Prescription Drug Take Back Day including locations in Rutland, Barre, Berlin, Brandon, Castleton, Fair Haven, Montpelier and Northfield.
Nationally, Drug Take Back has taken place for more than 20 years. A press release from the office of Gov. Phil Scott called the event “an opportunity for people to clean out their medicine cabinets and dispose of prescription drugs that might otherwise be misused or thrown away inappropriately.”
The sites, some of which, like the one at the Brandon Police Station, are open year-round, have long accepted medications that are expired, unused or unwanted but this year, they will also accept vaping devices if the batteries have been removed and vaping cartridges.
Heather Brouillard, regional Prevention Partnership coordinator at Rutland Regional Medical Center, said her work is mostly focused on preventing young people from abusing substances.
Nationally, when young people are able to access drugs for misuse, prescription drugs are the second most common source, Brouillard said.
According to Brouillard, young people can get drugs that can be abused, like opiates, from family members or from friends who got the drugs from their family members.
“Being able to have this opportunity to take prescription drugs, unused drugs, and safely dispose of them is incredibly important for youth in our community. … So it’s a really important day,” she said.
In a statement, Scott called Prescription Drug Takeback Day “important to (Vermont’s) prevention strategy” when responding to opiate misuse.
“Focusing on prevention is critical as we confront the opioid epidemic, and this is a valuable tool in that work,” he said.
Brouillard stressed the importance of keeping certain drugs away from those who could not only misuse them but develop dangerous addictions.
“My main focus is ages 12 to 25 and when you’re talking about that age group misuse of prescription drugs can be that gateway into street drugs and worse things,” she said.
While some may believe they are resolving the problem by pouring unused prescriptions down the sink or flushing them down the toilet, Brouillard noted that approach can contaminate Vermont waters and contribute to pollution.
Prescription drugs collected Saturday are securely gathered in one place and briefly stored before being moved out of state by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and incinerated.
Each year, between two and three tons of unneeded medications are turned in for disposal at Vermont sites.
“Last spring was actually a record-setting Drug Takeback Day. In Vermont, they collected 7,165 pounds (more than 3.5 tons) of unwanted medication which broke the previous record of 2019,” Brouillard said.
Gerianne Smart, manager of marketing and public relations for Rutland Regional Medical Center, said the event offers another opportunity. She pointed out that prescription medications have expiration dates because they can lose efficacy over time.
“Takeback Day is also a good time for people to assess what they have in their medicine cabinet, to dispose of things that aren’t going to help them from a health perspective anymore and to remind themselves that if they need medicine, it’s time to see their primary care doctor, not to medicate themselves and assume that just because they have that drug still, it’s going to work as well as it did when they got it three years earlier. That expiration date means something,” she said.
There is no charge for dropping off unused medication as part of Prescription Drug Takeback Day.
Vermonters can find the closest site for taking back drugs by going online to dea.gov/takebackday and using the tool that allows searches based on zip code, county or municipality.
The drop off site in Rutland is the Rutland County Sheriff’s Office — not the Rutland City police station. The Washington County Sheriff’s Department is another participating site.
Some businesses, like the Rutland Pharmacy and Kinney Drugs, are also drop off locations.
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