Rx Safe Marin Adds Drug Take-Back Site in San Anselmo

The following was submitted for publication on behalf of Rx Safe Marin:

As part of its commitment to increase the number of prescription drug take-back sites in Marin County, Rx Safe Marin is pleased to announce that five new take-back bins have been added to Marin’s network of safe take-back disposal sites, bringing the countywide total to 17.

With generous support from Marin Sanitary District, the new sites are conveniently located at the San Anselmo Police Department as well as Kaiser Permanente buildings in Terra Linda, San Rafael and Novato.

One in four Marin County adults needs help for substance abuse, alcohol abuse or mental health problems. Medicines for pain and other problems remain in home medicine cabinets long after they are needed where they can tempt others to help themselves in order to resell, misuse or abuse the drugs.

To address the widespread availability of prescription drugs, RxSafe Marin supports efforts to make it easy to safely get rid of unused drugs before they are used for the wrong reason. This includes developing a wide network of safe disposal sites that give residents the opportunity to dispose of the potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.

“Kaiser Permanente is an active partner in the effort to reduce and eventually have no one getting hurt from medications that were not intended for them,” said Pat Kendall, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group Administrator.

“Most of the medicines that are being abused or misused come from medicine cabinets of family and friends,” said Matthew Willis, M.D., MPH, Marin County Public Health Officer. “We need to make it as convenient as possible for people to safely dispose of leftover medications before they get into harm’s way. The addition of these new sites in San Anselmo and at Kaiser Permanente and others in the future are an important step in the right direction.”

RxSafe Marin, with the generous funding from Marin Sanitary District, is committed to increasing sites for patients to take back their prescription drugs when they no longer need them. Up-to-date listings of all drop-off sites throughout the county can be found here: Marin County Rx Drug Drop-off sites.

Tips when dropping off pills and patches:

• Take pills out of their containers and put them in small plastic bags for safe disposal.
• Check the link to see which sites can accept liquids, needles or sharps.
• The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

About Rx Safe Marin

Launched in 2013, RxSafe Marin is a coalition with a wide range of experts, community advocates, agencies, parents, pharmacists and health care partners collaborating to tackle the local prescription drug misuse epidemic. Since its inception, RxSafe Marin has developed new community-wide standards for prescribing opioid pain medications, sponsored drug take-back days and strengthened community awareness and ongoing prevention efforts. For more information, visit http://www.rxsafemarin.org/home.html

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