The Montgomery County Harm Reduction Coalition will be host its biannual Prescription Drug Takeback Program on Saturday. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Montgomery County Courthouse parking lot. This program aims to reduce the risk of prescription drug misuse by offering community members the opportunity to safely dispose of outdated or unneeded prescription drugs at no cost.
Utilizing this opportunity to discard expired or unneeded medications is one way to directly help improve both the local community and the country. Partaking in this event prevents the medications from being misused by someone in your household or by someone else who may find them due to improper, unsafe disposal.
One of the deadliest class of drugs is opioids. This program is one part in fighting the bigger problem facing not only our country and state, but also the local community: the opioid epidemic. Reducing the presence of unneeded prescription drugs combats their misuse. Drug misuse use of a substance for a purpose not consistent with legal or medical guidelines. Prescription drug misuse can lead to physical and psychological reliance on drugs, which can lead to life threatening health problems.
Learning about the opioid epidemic is crucial to understanding the severity of the situation and why programs like this are critical. Almost 50,000 people in the United States alone died from opioid overdose in 2019. That year, the state of Indiana reported 1,161 opioid-related deaths, with seven being in Montgomery County.
With over 5,000 opiates issued in the first quarter of 2021, and 17% of Montgomery County residents being issued opioids in the first quarter of 2021 alone, it is crucial that as a community we safely dispose of unneeded opioids to keep them from being misused.
Doctors prescribe synthetic opioids such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine, morphine and fentanyl because they offer medical benefits like pain relief. But, while these opioids fulfill their purpose, they also cause patients to enter a state of euphoria or extreme happiness. This extremely addictive feeling results from the opioids interacting with receptors in the brain to alleviate pain, and it is a major cause of these prescriptions being misused by the patient or others who find it.
Proper disposal of prescription drugs and needles is also available at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Crawfordsville Police Department.
