Wednesday, October 23, 2019; Deming, NM: Over 40 percent of people admit to snooping in medicine cabinets when visiting a house, according to a survey by party planning website The Salonniere.
What would they find in yours?
If the answer is medications, especially left-over pills, now is the time to clean out your medicine cabinet during Saturday’s (October 26, 2019) Drug Take Back Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the WalMart Super Center, located at 1021 East Pine St.
The Deming Police Department is partnering with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to give Luna County residents the opportunity to dispose of unused, unwanted or expired medications safely and anonymously during Drug Take Back Day.
“The National Drug Take Back Day allows the community to drop off their expired and unused medications safely knowing that they will be taken out of the community and disposed of properly,” said John Costilla-Gonzalez program specialist for the Coalition Against Teen Substances (CATS) a subcommittee of the Luna County Health Council which is helping promote the event.
Over 22 percent of male Luna County High School students reported taking a prescription painkiller without a prescription on the Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS), significantly higher than the New Mexico average of 16 percent. The YRRS is a national self-reported survey of the healthy, and not-so-healthy, behaviors of youth.
By removing unused prescription medications from the home and safely storing painkillers, people can better protect their loved ones from accidental poisonings and unintended overdoses.
According to the U.S. Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus, the worse place to store your medications is the bathroom medicine cabinet. In the bathroom medications are exposed to humidity and heat which can damage them. Instead the site advises to store medications in a cool, dry and secure place a kitchen cabinet with a childproof latch or in a locked storage box, especially if you have children in the house.
“Cleaning out your medicine cabinet further limits access to youth especially, but also to our entire community,” added Costilla-Gonzalez.
Drug Take Back Day locations accept medications from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the WalMart Super Center, located at 1021 East Pine St.
Prescription and over-the-counter medications are accepted. Sites cannot accept liquids, needles or sharps, only pills or patches. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
For more information on Drug Take Back Day visit the DEA website: https://takebackday.dea.gov/ or contact Costilla-Gonzalez at (575) 597-0025 or email jcostilla-gonzalez@swchi.org.
This news release is made available by the Coalition Against Teen Substances (CATS) a subcommittee of the Luna County Health Council and a program of the Center for Health Innovation. The program is funded by the New Mexico Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (OSAP).
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