Frederick Maryland citizens looking to dispose of excess and expired prescription and over-the-counter medications can visit the safe and secure permanent drop off location at the rear of the Frederick Police Department Headquarters, 100 W. Patrick St, Frederick, MD.
The Frederick County Health Department has partnered with the Frederick Police Department to establish a permanent MedReturn drug collection program in order to reduce the supply of drugs that can potentially harm teens and adults.
According to the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), more than six million Americans abuse prescription drugs. Among youth who are 12 to 17 years old, 7.4 percent report past year non-medical use of prescription drugs. Data collected by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2013, reveals that 11 percent of Frederick County youth and 29 percent of Frederick County adults admitted to state-funded treatment programs, reported abusing prescription opioid medications. According to the 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), approximately 9.8 percent of Frederick County high school youth reported past 30-day use of prescription medications without a prescription.
Properly disposing of excess drugs is everyone’s responsibility as a matter of public safety. More than 70 percent of young people abusing prescription pain relievers get them through friends or family, a statistic that includes raiding the family medicine cabinet. Now Frederick citizens won’t have to wait for a specific take-back day to clean out their medicine cabinets.
The collection site is open 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Drugs can be dropped off with no questions asked.
The drug collection unit provides a safe, secure and environmentally friendly way to help law enforcement agencies and communities collect unwanted or expired household medication, including prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs and unused pharmaceutical.
Since November 2014, the Frederick Police Department has destroyed 142.2 pounds of unwanted medications from the drug disposal box.
Prepared by: CPL R Carrado 386