[StBernard] St. Bernard Sheriff's Office to have drug take-back day

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Sheriff's Office to have drug take-back day

Published: Monday, April 23, 2012, 3:16 PM     Updated: Monday, April 23,
2012, 3:27 PM

 By The Times-Picayune 

St. Bernard residents can turn in unused prescription drugs Saturday, the
Sheriff's Office reported.

Unused drugs can be turned in at the sheriff's office station, 5429 Paris
Road, Chalmette, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. as part of U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday.

A sheriff's narcotics agent will be on hand to accept unwanted, unused or
expired prescription drugs.

"Residents are encouraged to empty out medicine cabinets and get rid of such
drugs so they don't fall into the hands of youngsters who get hooked on them
or thieves who would sell them on the streets," Sheriff-elect James Pohlmann
said.

The Sheriff's Office has been receiving old prescription medications the
past two years under what it calls Operation Medicine Cabinet. More than
6,000 prescription medicines - mostly pills - have been collected by the
Sheriff's Office and destroyed since April 2010.

Pohlmann said residents also can call the sheriff's 271-DOPE hotline at any
time and leave a message about turning in prescription drugs.

The federal agency, along with state and local law enforcement agencies
throughout the United States, conducted Drug Take-Back Days in September
2010, April 2011 and October 2011. Nearly, 4,000 state and local law
enforcement agencies throughout the nation participated in these events,
collecting hundreds of tons of prescriptions.

DEA estimates those three take-back days have removed nearly a million
pounds, or 500 tons of prescription medication circulation nationally. For
more information go to www.dea.gov.

The non-medical use of prescription drugs now ranks second only to marijuana
as the most common form of drug abuse in America, DEA says.