The Prescription Drug Task Force will have its biannual prescription drug takeback program Saturday. The event will last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will take place in the Montgomery County Health Department parking lot at 110 W. South Blvd., Crawfordsville. The prescription drug takeback program provides the opportunity for you to safely dispose of outdated or unneeded prescription drugs at no cost.
What harm can be caused by keeping old prescriptions and other seemingly beneficial medications around the house? Removing unneeded drugs reduces the risk of prescription drug misuse in your household. Drug misuse can be defined as taking a medication in a way other than prescribed or taking someone else’s prescription, even if you are experiencing a legitimate medical complaint. On the other hand, drug abuse can be defined as taking a drug, even if prescribed to you, strictly to feel the “high.” Prescription misuse often serves as a gateway to abusing more harmful opiates, such as heroin. Therefore, reducing prescription drug misuse can play an important role in combatting the much larger opioid abuse problem our country is facing today.
On average, more than 90 people in our country die every day from opioid overdoses. Earlier this year, drug overdoses became the leading cause of death in our country for people younger than age 50, overtaking both car crashes and gun violence. With this said, the so-called opioid epidemic that has plagued our nation for over two decades, is familiar to most of society. However, many people may not realize exactly what an opioid is.
Understanding what opioids are and how they function is essential to fighting the opioid abuse problem. Opioids are a class of drugs that interacts with receptors in the brain in a way that helps to alleviate pain, similar to the way you feel after an intense exercise activity. Opioids include illegal drugs such as heroin, but also include synthetic opioids such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and many others. All of these synthetic opioids have medical benefits, such as providing pain relief, but they also induce a state of euphoria, or extreme happiness. This euphoria feeling can become extremely addictive. For this reason, inappropriately consuming legal drugs, even ones prescribed to you, still constitutes drug misuse which can have seriously harmful side effects. Instead of abusing and misusing opioid drugs, we can experience a similar feeling of euphoria by going for a run.
Whether you are discarding medications from a deceased relative, or simply throwing out expired antibiotics, no matter how you participate in the prescription drug takeback program this Saturday, you are helping improve our county and our nation. The program provides a safe way to dispose of many potential risks in your households.
If for some reason you cannot attend the event Saturday, this is a reminder that you can dispose of prescription drugs as well as used needles anytime at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office as well as at the Crawfordsville Police Department.
Michael Jennings, Wabash College ‘18, is an intern with the Montgomery County Health Department.
