Tuesday, October 20, 2020; Las Cruces, NM: On Saturday, (October 24, 2020) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., local police departments and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its nineteenth opportunity in nine years to clean out their medicine cabinets to prevent medication misuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous and expired or unused prescription drugs.
All medication products and liquids will be accepted. Liquid products, such as cough syrup, should remain in their original container. Please ensure that the cap is tightly sealed to prevent leakage. All sites will not accept intravenous solutions, injectables, and syringes due to potential hazards posed by blood-borne pathogens.
This service will be drive-through due to COVID-19 restrictions; please wear a mask. All locations are free and anonymous; no questions asked.
Bring unused, unwanted, or expired medications for disposal to the five sites available in the Las Cruces area or to the seven additional sites located in Doña Ana County, including Anthony, Chaparral, Doña Ana, Hatch, Mesilla, Mesquite, and Santa Teresa (see locations below).
Last fall, Take Back Day collected more than 882,919 pounds of prescription drugs at 11,000 sites across the United States, with 896 pounds from Doña Ana County.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to misuse.
Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the American Medical Association announced that more than 40 states had reported increases in opioid-overdose mortality. The number of opioid overdoses is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, a National Institutes of Health-funded study found that people with substance use disorders (SUDs) are more susceptible to COVID-19 and its complications.
Year after year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that most misused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends. This includes someone else’s medication being stolen from home medicine cabinets.
In Doña Ana County, almost 19 percent of High School students reported taking a prescription painkiller without a prescription on the most recent Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, a self-reported survey of the healthy and not-so-healthy behaviors of youth.
Properly disposing of unused or expired medication from homes keeps the community safe from misuse, especially youth.
Safely disposing of medications during Take Back Day also means keeping our community environmentally safe by keeping prescriptions out of the water supply and landfill.
“National Drug Take Back Day is such an important event for our community. Safely disposing of unused or expired medications from homes helps prevent the misuse of potentially dangerous medication. It helps to prevent potential risks that may lead to substance use disorders in our community,” said Michelle Rincon, Program Specialist with the Unified Prevention (UP!) Coalition of Doña Ana County.
“Other safeguarding steps our community members can take to protect the health and safety of their families and children include not sharing medications and locking all medication,” further advised Rincon.
National Drug Take Back Day partners include the Anthony Police Department, DEA Las Cruces, Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, Hatch Police Department, Las Cruces Police Department, Mesilla Marshal’s Department, New Mexico State Police, Sunland Park Police Department, the Unified Prevention (UP!) Coalition of Doña Ana County, and the NMSU Pre-Pharmacy Society.
For more information about the disposal of prescription drugs or about October’s upcoming Drug Take Back Day event, go to www.DEATakeBack.com or contact Michelle Rincon at (575) 597-0042, email: mrincon@chi-phi.org.
This news release is made available by the Unified Prevention (UP!) Coalition of Doña Ana County, a program of the Center for Health Innovation, and funded by the New Mexico Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (OSAP).
National Drug Take Back Day locations in Doña Ana County
Chaparral
- Stires Supermarket 304 McCombs Rd.
Doña Ana
- Doña Ana Fire Department, 601 Doña Ana School Rd.
Las Cruces
- Branigan Library, 200 E Picacho Ave.
- Walmart, 1550 S Valley Dr.
- Walmart, 571 Walton Blvd.
- Walmart Neighborhood Market, 150 Sonoma Ranch Blvd.
- Walmart, 3331 Rinconada Blvd.
Anthony
- Municipal Building, 820 NM-478.
Hatch
- Village of Hatch Administration Building, 133 Franklin St.
Mesilla
- Mesilla Town Administration Building, 2231 Avenida de Mesilla.
Mesquite
- Mesquite Fire Department, 1 Firehouse Rd.
Santa Teresa
- Sports Complex, 4700 McNutt Rd
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