DHSS Press Release

DISPOSE OF EXPIRED AND UNUSED MEDICINES AT DRUG TAKE-BACK DAY OCT. 22, 2016

DOVER, DE (October 18, 2016) - National studies show that almost two-thirds of people who misuse prescription drugs get them from friends and family, including by raiding medicine cabinets, purses, and drawers. To improve safety in our homes and communities, the Division of Public Health's (DPH) Healthy Homes Program is coordinating the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Delawareans can discard their expired and unused medicines at one of 27 designated collection sites statewide. Identification is not required, and no questions will be asked. Collection sites will accept prescription and over-the-counter pills, liquids, and cream medications, and even pet medications. No syringes or inhalers will be accepted.

DPH announced the latest Drug Take-Back Day date at a press event held in the Community Room at Delaware State Police Troop 3 in Camden, Del. DPH Director Dr. Karyl Rattay, talked about the wide availability of collection sites statewide.

"Delawareans in each county will have many options to locate a disposal site near them. We greatly appreciate the participation of each of these sites and their partnership in helping us promote safe prescription drug disposal," said Dr. Rattay. "Offering this opportunity can help Delawareans avoid painful addictions, illegal substance use, and tragic overdoses, as well as protect our groundwater from contamination by substances that are often improperly flushed down drains and toilets."

Properly disposing of expired and unused medicines prevents prescription drug misuse, which can lead to addiction and overdoses of prescription painkillers and other drugs. According to DPH’s preliminary 2015 data, 198 Delawareans died from accidental and intentional drug poisonings that year, compared to 189 deaths in 2014.

"The National Take-Back Day event offers the public a means to safely dispose of their unwanted or expired medications for free," said Shawn R. Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division and head of the DEA's operations in Delaware who spoke at the event. "Our medicine cabinets are often the source for prescription opioid medicines that can potentially be abused by our family members and friends."

Opioids are also a known gateway to abusing illegal substances, particularly heroin. According to DEA statistics, eight out of 10 new heroin users began by abusing prescription painkillers and moved to heroin when they could no longer obtain or afford those painkillers.

That's one reason that on Dec. 1, 2016, the Delaware Department of State’s Division of Professional Regulation will publish stricter regulations for the safe prescribing of opioid analgesics for both instances of acute pain as well as chronic, long-term conditions involving pain treatment. David Mangler, director for the Division of Professional Regulation, discussed the proposed regulations.

"The Prescription Monitoring Program has played a key role in combatting the illegal use and misuse of prescription controlled drugs in Delaware, and cooperation has always been at the heart of the effort," said Director Mangler. "We know that the updates we’re incorporating into the program, in addition to the teamwork we’re doing with other agencies and law enforcement, will help us continue to gain ground."

The regulations include three major provisions:

• For an acute injury or procedure, a practitioner can prescribe a maximum initial seven-day supply of an opioid medication before additional steps are required.
• Extending the prescription or writing additional prescriptions will require the practitioner to check the patient's prescription history in the State's Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) along with informing the patient of the risks of such things as potential addiction, abuse, misuse, risks of life-threatening respiratory depression and accidental overdose.
• For patients being treated for chronic pain, practitioners will be required to check the State's PMP and administer a drug screening at least twice a year while receiving chronic treatment with opioid medications. The practitioner must also consider and discuss alternative treatment options with a patient, and conduct a risk assessment to identify patients that are or may be at risk for dependence or misuse of a prescribed opioid.

The regulations are the result of months of research and work by the Secretary of State’s Controlled Substance Advisory Committee and will apply to any Delaware licensed practitioner also licensed to prescribe controlled substances. These include physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, podiatrists, and dentists.

Dr. Betsy Jones, chapter leader for the Kent County Chapter of advocacy group atTAcK addiction, shared her personal experience with the impact that addiction has on not only the person in active use, but also the person’s family. atTAcK addiction is a grassroots organization comprised largely of parents, family members and loved ones of individuals who suffer from, and in many cases have died from, the disease of addiction.

"Opioid addiction is destroying families and taking lives across the United States. But it isn't just a national issue – it's very much a Delaware issue – and it's reached epidemic proportions. We are committed to spreading a message of awareness and prevention, and more importantly, eliminating the stigma of addiction, so that individuals and families who are suffering can open up, ask for and receive the help they need to conquer this often, deadly, disease."

Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) Secretary Rita Landgraf talked about the agency's efforts to support those seeking help for addiction as well as innovative diversion programs by partners such as the New Castle County Police Department's HERO HELP program and the Dover Police Department's recently announced ANGEL Program. Under the diversion program in Dover, any person who enters the police station and requests help with their addiction to opiates will be immediately screened for entry into the program. In New Castle County, if you are about to be arrested for a minor crime, instead of being arrested and incarcerated, you can choose to enter into treatment.

"People who are struggling with addiction need to know that treatment works and people do recover," said Secretary Landgraf. "To reduce the toll that the addiction epidemic is having on our state we have added to our treatment capacity, are increasing awareness about prevention, and working with medical and law enforcement officials to reduce the diversion of prescription medications."

Persons seeking help for drug addiction can visit www.Helpisherede.com to connect with treatment services and learn about the warning signs of addiction. For more information about the Dover Police ANGEL Program, visit doverpolice.org/addiction/ ,and for more information about the New Castle County Police HERO HELP Program, visit www.nccde.org/1266/HERO-HELP-Program.

The Delaware Prescription Action Committee (PDAC), chaired by Dr. Rattay and Dr. John Goodill, has recommended and is working, to implement a comprehensive approach to preventing, controlling and treating this epidemic. Public and provider education are key components of these efforts. DPH and the PDAC Provider Education Subcommittee are preparing materials about opioids and the new prescriber regulations, for late November. PDAC also recommended establishing secure, permanent drop boxes, and 14 now exist at local police departments, and town hall offices.

Drugs for disposal must be in a container such as a pill bottle, box, blister pack, or zipped plastic bag. Liquid medications must be in their original containers. Needles, aerosols, biohazard materials, medical equipment, and batteries will not be accepted. Personal information should be removed from bottles and packages. More details are available from DPH at www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/dph/hsp/hhdrugtakeback.html or 302-744-4546, ext. 5, and from the DEA at www.dea.gov/take-back/takeback-news.shtml.

Businesses such as nursing homes, medical clinics, and pharmacies wishing to dispose of unwanted stock are not permitted to use permanent drop boxes and must follow Federal Regulation 21CFR1307.21 for disposal of unwanted stock. The Drug Take-Back Day collection sites, operating on Oct. 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. are:

New Castle County

Permanent collection Site	Collection Site Name	Address	City	ZIP
	Delaware City Police Department	407 Clinton St.	Delaware City	19706
	Delaware State Police Troop 2	100 La Grange Ave.	Newark	19702
X	Newark Police Department	220 South Main St.	Newark	19711
	Christiana Care Surgical Center	4755 Ogletown Stanton Road.	Newark	19718
	New Castle County Airport	151 N. Dupont Hwy.	New Castle	19720
X	New Castle County Police Department	Sweeney Public Safety Building, 3601 N. DuPont Hwy.	New Castle	19720
	Wilmington VA Medical Center	1601 Kirkwood Hwy.	Wilmington	19805
	Shipley Manor Nursing Home	2723 Shipley Road.	Wilmington	19810

Kent County

Permanent collection Site	Collection Site Name	Address	City	ZIP
	Atlantic Apothecary	103. S. Dupont Blvd., Suite 2.	Smyrna	19977
	Cheswold Police Department	691 Main St.	Cheswold	19904
X	Camden Police Department	1783 Friends Way.	Camden	19934
	Delaware State Police Troop 3	3759 S. State St.	Camden	19934
	Dover AFB Commissary	268 Galaxy St.	Dover AFB	19902
X	Felton Police Department	24 East Sewell St.	Felton	19943
	Heritage at Dover Assisted Living	1203 Walker Road .	Dover	19904
	Milford Police Department	400 N.E. Front St.	Milford	19963

Sussex County

Permanent collection Site	Collection Site Name	Address	City	ZIP
	Dagsboro Police Department	33134 Main St.	Dagsboro	19939
	Delaware State Police Troop 4	23652 Shortly Road.	Georgetown	19947
	Delaware State Police Troop 7	18006 Coastal Hwy.	Lewes	19958
X	Town of Laurel Town Office	205 Mechanic St.	Laurel	19956
	City of Lewes Board of Public Works	129 Schley Ave.	Lewes	19958
	Milton Police Department	101 Federal St.	Milton	19968
X	Ocean View Police Department	201 Central Ave.	Ocean View	19970
	Beebe Tunnell Cancer Center	18947 John Jay Williams Hwy.	Rehoboth	19971
	Rehoboth Beach Police Department	229 Rehoboth Ave.	Rehoboth	19971
	CVS Pharmacy	36252 Lighthouse Road	Selbyville	19975
X	Selbyville Town Hall	68 W. Church St.	Selbyville	19975

Other permanent collection sites:

New Castle County
Wilmington Police Department - 300 N. Walnut St., Wilmington, DE 19801

Kent County

• Dover Police Department - 400 S. Queen St., Dover, DE 19904
• Harrington Police Department - 20 Mechanic St., Harrington, DE 19952
• Smyrna Police Department - 325 W. Glenwood Ave., Smyrna, DE 19977

Sussex County

• Georgetown Police Department - 335 N. Race St., Georgetown, DE 19947
• Greenwood Police Department - 100 W. Market St., Greenwood, DE 19950
• Delmar Police Department - 400 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Delmar, MD 21875

Since 2010, Delaware's Drug Take-Back events have collected 59,686 pounds of drugs. A new collection record was set on the April 30, 2016 Take-Back Day, when Delaware collected 7,684 pounds of drugs.

Delaware's Drug Take-Back Day totals

Event Date	#Pounds
May 14, 2010	1,680 lbs.
September 25, 2010 .	303 lbs.
April 30, 2011 .	4,395 lbs.
October 29, 2011 .	4,465 lbs.
April 28, 2012.	6,808 lbs.
September 29, 2012 .	4,561 lbs.
April 27, 2013.	6,122 lbs.
October 26, 2013 .	5,258 lbs.
April 26, 2014 .	6,476 lbs.
September 27, 2014.	4,707 lbs.
September 12, 2015.	7,227 lbs.
April 30, 2016.	7,684 lbs.
TOTAL COLLECTED	59,686 lbs .

A person who is deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind, or speech-disabled can call the DPH phone number above by using TTY services. Dial 7-1-1 or 800-232-5460 to type your conversation to a relay operator, who reads your conversation to a hearing person at DPH. The relay operator types the hearing person's spoken words back to the TTY user. To learn more about TTY availability in Delaware, visit delawarerelay.com.

Delaware Health and Social Services is committed to improving the quality of the lives of Delaware's citizens by promoting health and well-being, fostering self-sufficiency, and protecting vulnerable populations. DPH, a division of DHSS, urges Delawareans to make healthier choices with the 5-2-1 Almost None campaign: eat 5 or more fruits and vegetables each day, have no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time each day (includes TV, computer, gaming), get 1 or more hours of physical activity each day, drink almost no sugary beverages.

Delaware Health and Social Services is committed to improving the quality of the lives of Delaware's citizens by promoting health and well-being, fostering self-sufficiency, and protecting vulnerable populations.

Delaware's Government

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