Drug Take Back Day April 26th

A recent article in the REALTOR® Magazine about the number of prescriptions stolen during Open Houses got me thinking about a safety issue when you have your home listed – your family’s medications.

Though we screen every potential buyer we take through your Salt Lake City area home and walk with them every step we take, there still are Open Houses and other showings of your home. As careful as we and other agents are, precautions are still needed.

Prescription drug thieves actually target open houses and many times travel in pairs. One of them acts as a decoy and the other travels around the house scouring to find prescription drugs. Generally they are on the lookout for controlled substances like anti-anxiety drugs, drugs for ADHD/ADD, pain killers & muscle relaxers and other psychiatric drugs.

Just to be on the safe side - Before a showing or open house, remove all medications and prescription drugs from the bathroom or other places you store them. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence recommends taking your medications with you.

If you have unused or outdated prescriptions, April 26^th is the National Drug Take Back Day.

On April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the agencies listed below and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its eighth opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.  Bring your pills for disposal to the addresses listed below. (The DEA cannot accept liquids or needles or sharps, only pills or patches.)  The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

Last October, Americans turned in 324 tons (over 647,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at over 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners.  When those results are combined with what was collected in its seven previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 3.4 million pounds—more than 1,700 tons—of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.  Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.  Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.

DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” (that is, a patient or their family member or pet owner) of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them.  The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.

Contact us if you have any questions about listing your home in the Salt Lake City area.

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**Above information is from the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Diversion Control