The Final State of the Union
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
Summary:
Last Saturday, Americans returned a record-setting 276 tons of unneeded prescription medication to National Drug Take-Back sites across the country.
On April 28th, the fourth annual National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, the DEA and its partners around the country collected 552,161 pounds—276 tons—of unneeded prescription medication. This initiative is an important piece of our strategy to decrease prescription drug abuse, especially in light of our recent data analysis showing new Rx drug abusers are more likely to get their drugs from friends or family.
Volunteers at two of the 5,659 take-back sites across the country were visited by senior leaders from our office. In Washington State for official travel, Director Kerlikowske stopped by a collection site in Des Moines, WA, where residents dropped off more than 290 pounds of unneeded prescription drugs.
Back in D.C., David Mineta, our Deputy Director of Demand Reduction, showed his support with volunteers at Bolling Air Force Base.
We applaud everyone who made last Saturday such an overwhelming success, bringing the four-year total of collected medication to 1.5 million pounds, and we look forward to marking a new record next year.
