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Federal Employee Prescription Drug Take Back Day - April 26th

On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, federal employees and contractors can safely, confidentially and conveniently dispose of unwanted, unused or expired prescription drugs. By participating in Federal Employee Prescription Drug Take Back Day, you can help free your home from a dangerous hazard -- prescription drugs that can be misused.

If you are a federal employee or contractor, bring your unwanted, unused or expired prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to one of the following convenient locations from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. on April 26.  Last year, NIH collected 551 lbs. of prescription drugs - second only to FDA as the top HHS collection site in the nation!

Drop off locations:

On-campus - Building 31A Lobby.

Off-campus - Neuroscience Center (NSC), 6001 Executive Boulevard, Cafeteria.

Baltimore – Biomedical Research Center (BRC), 251 Bayview Boulevard, 3rd Floor Lobby.

Nationwide Collection on April 29 - For those employees and contractors unable to take advantage of Wednesday's event or not located in the Washington, DC/Baltimore region, National Prescription Drug Take Back events are scheduled on Saturday, April 29 at collection sites throughout the United States. For more information or to find the closest collection site on April 29, visit: https://bit.ly/2d9RNVt or call 800-882-9539. 

Prescription medications, including pain relievers, can alleviate suffering and help restore quality of life for many patients. However, the misuse of prescription drugs such as opioids has become an urgent public health problem, affecting both youth and adults and contributing to marked increases in unintentional poisoning-related deaths and emergency room visits. In fact, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids—drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone – and heroin) have quadrupled since 1999. And, in 2015, about 12.5 million Americans misused prescription pain relievers and 2.0 million had a pain reliever use disorder.

We know that easy access is contributing to this problem - studies show that more than half of people who misused prescription pain relievers in the past year get them from friends and family members.

For more information about Opioid misuse in particular, please visit:  http://www.hhs.gov/opioids.         

To learn more about prescription drug misuse and prevention, please visit: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/prescription-drugs.           

To find treatment resources for prescription drug misuse and dependence, please visit: https://www.samhsa.gov/treatment/index.aspx.           ​

We encourage you to take part in this effort to reduce the public health threat posed by prescription and OTC drug misuse in this country, and to begin by taking a look in your own medicine cabinet.