Police 'Take Back' 178 Pounds of Narcotics and Other Drugs

Urbandale police collected 178 pounds of narcotics and other drugs Saturday in a prescription drug drop-off program conducted as part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Drug Take-Back Initiative.

The program keeps drugs out of landfills and water sources but, perhaps more important, out of the hands of potential abusers, said Urbandale Police Department spokesman Randy Peterson.

The Take-Back events are a significant piece of the White House’s prescription drug abuse prevention strategy released in 2011 by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to the DEA website.

Disposal of unwanted, unused or expired drugs is one of four strategies for reducing prescription drug abuse and diversion laid out in Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis.

“Every household has medicine, and kids are known to have ‘pharm’ parties. They’re often associated with drinking alcohol, and they don’t always realize the dangers they are putting themselves in.”

The other strategies include education of health care providers, patients, parents and youth; enhancing and encouraging the establishment of prescription drug monitoring programs in all the states; and increased enforcement to address doctor shopping and pill mills.

In Urbandale, “prescription drug use is one of the leading drug abuse problems we have,” Peterson said.

“Every household has medicine, and kids are known to have ‘pharm’ parties,” he said. “They’re often associated with drinking alcohol, and they don’t always realize the dangers they are putting themselves in.”

At such parties, the revelers grab a handful of pills from a bowl, “ but they don’t know what they are taking,” Peterson said. “They could counteract, or they could get so relaxed they stop breathing.”

Urbandale police routinely remind residents to lock up their prescription drugs along with their jewelry and other values when they put their homes on the real estate market and allow strangers to visit at open houses.

Also, if grandchildren who haven’t been attentive start visiting near the weekend, it’s wise to keep an eye on the medicine cabinet, Peterson said.

Drugs like oxycodone, the prescription drug most commonly abused, isn’t the only target of family medicine cabinet raids.

“Sometimes, they’re just randomly taking medicine just to see if they can get a buzz,” Peterson said. “Unfortunately, teenagers have this concept that nothing will happen.”

Last fall, the DEA’s law enforcement partners took in 244 tons of prescription medications from 5,263 locations across the country. Since the program began in 2010, more than 1,018 tons of drugs have been turned in.

More than 70 percent of people abusing prescription pain relievers got the drugs through friends and family, often by raiding a family member’s medicine chest, the DEA said, citing the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

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