Prescription Pill Pick Up Coming To Knox County

Prescription Pill Pick Up Coming To Knox County
By Echo Menges

The Knox County Coalition Against Meth, local law enforcement, and the Clark County Prescription Pill Diversion Program will be in Edina at the 4-H Pavilion August 6th, 2010 from 3:00pm to 6:00pm conducting a prescription pill pick up.
“It’s to get the pills that can be abused that you have sitting in your medicine cabinet or that you have sitting at home not being used for a period of time. The pills that are easy access for kids and younger people to get a hold of.” Said Robert Becker, President of the Knox County Coalition Against Meth.
“We’ll take anything (anyone) wants to bring in, no questions asked. They can just bring them in and drop them off and we’ll incinerate them. We’ll dispose of them properly so they’re not getting into the water supply or anything. It would be better if (unused prescriptions) didn’t ever get flushed. It would be far better to mix them with coffee grounds or cat litter or something and dispose of them in the garbage than to put them into the drinking water. That’s where they go if they go down the toilet, they’ll wind up in the drinking water.”
According to Becker prescription pills are the second most abused drugs. And the rate people are abusing them is on the rise.
“They’re more than rising they’re out of control and they have been and they’re going to do nothing but get worse.” Said Becker. “They’re easy to get. Anybody can go into the doctor’s office and say hey my back’s hurting and they’re going to give you Hydrocodone. They’re going to give you Oxycotin. You can go in there and complain about not being able to stay on track, not stay on line and (doctors) are going to give you Adderall. Adderall is an amphetamine. (When it’s used illegally) it’s the same thing as Meth.”
Becker says many prescription pills have the same properties as illegal drugs like Heroin, Meth, and Cocaine.
“It’s bigger than all of them put together.” Said Becker adding, “Seventy percent of kids who use prescription pills are getting them from family members. That’s where they come from. And the (pills) they don’t get from there they trade them at school. It’s not hard for them to do that.”
And that’s why the KCCAM is bringing this pill pick up to Edina and Knox County. They are fighting to keep unused prescriptions out of the hands of our youth.
Once a prescription is used outside of what it was intended to be used for. or by a person it wasn’t prescribed to, that pill becomes an illegal drug. Anyone caught with a prescription pill in their possession, without a prescription for that pill, can be charged for possessing a controlled substance. Becker hopes this Pill Pick Up will get some of these pills out of the reach of children and people who abuse them.
“People who abuse these substances know what they’re doing is illegal. We want to make the general public aware of what’s going on.” Said Becker.
“There comes a time when we’re not important anymore. It’s our kids who are important and we need to do whatever we have to, to help them and to make sure they get to grow up the best way they can.” Said Becker. “I worry every day about my kids and hope they never get addicted to any of these drugs.”