SO, PDs to collect unwanted meds

The St. Mary Parish Sheriff‘s Office and the Franklin and Morgan City police departments are taking part in the National Take-Back Initiative coordinated through the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The public may bring prescription medications for disposal to one of two sites hosted by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office — Rite-Aid located at 1301 U.S. 90 in Bayou Vista or Walgreen’s located at 2030 Main St. in Franklin.
Franklin PD will accept unwanted/unused drugs at their station located on Second Street and MCPD’s sites are going to be at Walmart and Walgreen’s in Morgan City. Between the three agencies participating here in St. Mary there are five drop off sites across the parish making disposal convenient for residents.
Syringes or injectables will not be accepted. This service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Expired, unused, or unwanted medications may be brought to any of the five locations Saturday, Sept. 26 between the hours of 10 a,m. and 2 p.m.
Unused medications in homes create a public health and safety concern, because they can be accidentally ingested, stolen, misused and abused.
The initiative gives the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their home of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription pills.
Twice as many Americans regularly abuse prescription drugs than the number of those who regularly use heroin, cocaine, inhalants and hallucinogens combined, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey also found that the majority of those who abuse prescription drugs obtain them from friends or relatives. This includes raiding the family medicine cabinet.