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On Wednesday, October 25, 2017, federal employees and contractors can safely, confidentially and conveniently dispose of unwanted, unused or expired prescription drugs. By participating in Federal Employee Prescription Drug Take Back Day, you can help free your home from a dangerous hazard -- prescription drugs that can be misused.
 
If you are a federal employee or contractor, bring your unwanted, unused or expired prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to one of the following convenient locations from 10am until 2pm on October 25. New this year, NCI Shady Grove has been added as a collection site.
 
Drop off locations:
 
On-campus - Building 31A Lobby.
Off-campus - Neuroscience Center (NSC), 6001 Executive Boulevard, Cafeteria.
Off-campus – NCI Shady Grove, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Lobby.
Baltimore – Biomedical Research Center (BRC), 251 Bayview Boulevard, 3rd Floor Lobby.
 
In April, at the last Drug Take Back Day, NIH collected over 425 lbs of pharmaceutical drugs, leading all OPDIVS as the top HHS government collection site in the nation.
 
Nationwide Collection on October 28 - For those employees and contractors unable to take advantage of Wednesday's event or not located in the Washington, DC/Baltimore region, National Prescription Drug Take Back events are scheduled on Saturday, October 28 at collection sites throughout the United States. For more information or to find the closest collection site on October 28, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xnCMk or call 800-882-9539.   
 
Prescription medications, including pain relievers, can alleviate suffering and help restore quality of life for many patients. However, the misuse of prescription drugs such as opioids has become an urgent public health problem, affecting both youth and adults and contributing to marked increases in unintentional poisoning-related deaths and emergency room visits. In fact, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids—drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone – and heroin) have quadrupled since 1999. And, in 2015, about 11.5 million Americans misused prescription pain relievers and 1.8 million had a pain reliever use disorder.
 
We know easy access is contributing to this problem - data shows that more than half of people who misused prescription pain relievers in the past year get them from friends and family members.
 
For more information about opioid misuse in particular, please visit:  http://www.hhs.gov/opioids and https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids.           
 
To learn more about prescription drug misuse and prevention, please visit: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/prescription-drugs.             
 
To find treatment resources for prescription drug misuse and dependence, please visit: https://www.samhsa.gov/treatment/index.aspx.            
 
We encourage you to take part in this effort to reduce the public health threat posed by prescription and OTC drug misuse in this country, and to begin by taking a look in your own medicine cabinet.
 
Thank you in advance,
 
Your colleagues at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Office of Research Services, co-sponsors of the Federal Employee Prescription Drug Take-Back Day at NIH

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