(Source: Occupation Health & Safety 2014-09-09）
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced a new Drug Enforcement Administration regulation that will allow pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and other authorized collectors to serve as authorized drop-off sites for unused prescription drugs.
The new policy will help combat prescription drug misuse, which Holder on Sept. 8 called an “urgent and growing threat” to the nations public health. The policy will permit long-term care facilities to collect controlled substances turned in by residents of those facilities, and prescription drug users everywhere will have permission to mail their unused medications to authorized collectors, according to DOJs announcement.
It noted that more than half of the 41,300 unintentional drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2011 involved prescription drugs, with opioid pain relievers involved in about 17,000 of those deaths.
“These shocking statistics illustrate that prescription drug addiction and abuse represent nothing less than a public health crisis,” he said in a video message posted on DOJ website. “Every day, this crisis touches and devastates he lives of Americans from every state, in every region, and from every background and walk of life.”
DEA and partnering organizations have collected more than 4.1 million pounds of prescription pills through organized take-back days since 2010 and have set the next collection day for Sept. 27, 2014.
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