On Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Tomball Police Department and Northwest EMS will set up a “Take Back Day” collection site at City Hall, located at 401 Market Street, where the public can bring unused, unwanted, or expired prescription drugs for safe disposal, no questions asked and at no cost to them.  This is an opportunity to safely empty out medicine cabinets of unneeded drugs or those that have expired, including prescription drugs that contain controlled substances.

What are controlled substances?

About one in eight prescription drugs contain active ingredients that the federal government limits in distribution and handles in a special, secure way. The determination of which drugs need such handling is based on criteria in the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

Different levels of control are exerted on different drugs based on those criteria. These drugs include, but are not limited to, narcotics (opiates) like Vicodin, Percocet, OxyContin and codeine cough syrup; stimulants like Adderall, Ritalin and Dexedrine; and sedatives and tranquilizers like Valium, Xanax and Ambien.

What prompted the DEA to hold a ‘take-back day?’

The DEA is charged with protecting the public’s health and safety when it comes to controlled substances.  Prescription drugs containing controlled substances are being misused and abused at alarming rates in America today, leading to cases of accidental poisoning, overdose and addiction, making them a public safety issue. 

A factor contributing to their increased usage is their availability in the home medicine cabinet.  In many cases, medicines containing controlled substances remain in the home medicine cabinet long after therapy has been completed, thus making these drugs easily accessible to others who would misuse or abuse them.  The Controlled Substances Act provides limited options for consumers to legally dispose of their old medicines. 

At this time, most communities do not routinely offer consumers the opportunity to properly dispose of these medicines.  As a result, many people keep the drugs because they do not know how to dispose of them. So, the DEA is holding this “take-back day” to help consumers clean out their medicine cabinets of these old, unwanted, potentially harmful drugs.

For more information, visit www.justice.gov/dea.

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