Middlefield Resident Troopers Collected Unwanted Prescription Drugs on October 22nd

Middlefield, October 22, 2016: On October 22^nd Middlefield Resident Troopers participated in the DEA’s National Drug Take Back Day. The event was from 10am-2pm and staffed by Middlefield Resident Trooper Tim Kendrick. Over the past few years, our community has collected a total of 460 pounds of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. "Saturday's Take Back Day was highly successful, despite the rain," said Middlefield Resident Trooper, Brendan Rea, "thank you to our community members who came out!"

Drug Take-Back events are a significant piece of the Durham Middlefield Local Wellness Coalitions prescription drug prevention efforts and is a community policing initiative from the Connecticut State Police. Results from the 2015 Search Institute Survey showed that 5.4% of 7^th-12^th graders reported using prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them, a 2 percentage point increase from 2013. “The illegal use of prescription drugs by our youth is lower than the state average” said Stephanie Moran, Prevention Coordinator with DMLWC, “however, our numbers are rising and as a community we need to work together to prevent that number from increasing again.”

Last April, Americans turned in 447 tons (over 893,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at nearly 5,400 sites operated by the DEA and more than 4,200 of its state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in previous take back events, DEA and its partners have taken on over 6.4 million pounds-more than 3,200 tons – of pills.

Middlefield and Durham Resident Troopers will continue to conduct these events to decrease the supply of unused prescription drugs in homes, reducing access and misuse, especially among youth.

The Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is planned, staffed, and provided as a continuing proactive effort by The Connecticut State Police, Troop F to prevent drug abuse before it happens in our community. This event is supported by The Durham Middlefield Local Wellness Coalition.

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