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Announcing New Rules for Prescription Drug Disposal

Summary: 
Today, we joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to announce new regulations that create convenient, legal avenues for safe, environmentally-friendly disposal of unneeded prescription drugs.

Today, we joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to announce new regulations that create convenient, legal avenues for safe, environmentally-friendly disposal of unneeded prescription drugs. Now, thanks to these regulations, neighborhood pharmacies and others will be able to set up disposal locations as well as administer mail-back programs. In August, President Obama also announced his newest Executive Action, which contains language providing that the United States Department of Defense (DOD) will direct its police force to carry naloxone, the life-saving overdose reversal drug.

These two actions mark a huge step forward in the Obama Administration’s work to curb the opioid epidemic, which claims more lives each year in America than motor vehicle crashes.

We know that about 70% of people who misuse prescription drugs get them for free from friends and family. Because of this, one of the four pillars of the Obama Administration’s Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan is the safe storage and disposal of unused controlled substances. The regulations we’re announcing today will enable patients and families as well as long term care facilities to more easily dispose of unused prescription drugs properly, keeping both people and the environment safe from harm.

Today’s announcement is cause for celebration and renewed hope as we keep working to make communities safer and to prevent future overdose deaths. Read the new regulations on the Federal Register website and learn more about today’s announcement.

See the DEA's fact sheet.