Greenfield Police Department Will Accept Unwanted Prescription Drugs

The Greenfield Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will give the public its sixth opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.

Bring your medications for disposal to the Greenfield Law Enforcement Center, 5300 West Layton Ave., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 27.

The service is free and anonymous.

Last September, Americans turned in 244 tons of prescription drugs at over 5,200 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners. More than 600 pounds were collected in Greenfield alone. In its five previous "Take Back" events, DEA and its partners took in over 2 million pounds — over a thousand tons — of pills. 

Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. And when people want to get rid of those medications, they often aren't doing so properly. Flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Four days after the first "Take Back" event, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them.

The act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long-term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances.