BOWLING GREEN -- The Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force collected about 63 pounds of pharmaceuticals at the Wood County Hospital and 13.5 pounds of pharmaceuticals at the Wood County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday following national Drug Take-Back Day.
The Wood County Hospital, The Wood County Sheriff’s Office and the Bowling Green Police Division partnered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
"We have seen a 30 percent increase in trafficking cases of prescription drugs this year compared to this time last year," task force director Tommy Loving told the Bowling Green Daily News.
Loving also said people can protect their children from experimenting with drugs by disposing of old drugs and keeping current prescriptions in a secure location.
Accordng to the National Take Back Initiative, DEA work with state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the United States to conduct National Prescription Drug Take Back Days on Sept. 25, 2010 and April 25, 2011. Nearly, 4,000 state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the nation participated in these events, collecting more than 309 tons of pills.
The DEA holds Take Back Days every six months until they finish developing a process for people to safely dispose of their prescription drugs through the Controlled Substances Act.
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