On Saturday, April 27, 2019, Officers with the Sarasota Police Department Street Crimes Unit collected 38 pounds of unused, expired and unwanted prescriptions drugs during the National Drug Take-Back Initiative with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

Members of the DEA will collect the drugs that were dropped off from the Sarasota Police Department Property Unit and dispose of them properly.

The Sarasota Police Department also has a permanent drop-box in the lobby at Sarasota Police Headquarters at 2099 Adams Lane, Sarasota, that can be accessed from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week for citizens to drop off unused, expired and unwanted prescriptions drugs.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.  Medicines that sit 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.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows year after year that most misused and abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including someone else’s medication being stolen 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.

Last fall, Americans turned in nearly 460 tons (more than 900,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at more than 5,800 sites operated by the DEA and almost 4,800 of its state and local law enforcement partners.  Overall, in its 16 previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in almost 11 million pounds—nearly 5,500 tons—of pills.

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