Utah County health officials collect 892 pounds of drugs in take-back events

PROVO — Utah County health officials collected 892 pounds of prescription drugs — more than 92,000 individual pills — during take-back events the past three Saturdays.

Along with collecting pills from 228 individuals and families, workers at the 10 events handed out more than 1,600 pamphlets about prescription drug abuse and the importance of properly disposing of medication.

Richard Nance, the county's substance abuse director, said the main reasons people attended the take-back events was because they didn't know how to dispose of their medications or they did not want their pills to be abused in the future.

According to cleanoutthecabinent.org, a Utah County substance abuse website, 70 percent of those who abuse pain relievers say they get them from their friends or relatives.

Kye Nordfelt, coordinator of the county's Substance Misuse and Abuse Reduction Team, said studies show that prescription drug abuse among teenagers is on the rise, while every other form of substance abuse is either stagnant or going down.

"People just don't realize how harmful their prescription medications can be," Nordfelt said.

Pills collected during the Saturday events included 36,000 pain pills such as Lortab, Vicodin and Oxycontin; and 55,600 other controlled substance pills such as Valium, Ritalin and Xanax. The estimated street value of addictive drugs collected was $2.6 million.

County health officials plan to hold more prescription take-back events in the fall.

Nance said he hopes laws will be passed soon to allow people to dispose of medication at their own pharmacies. He said Utah County residents have about 7.7 million unused prescription pills in their homes.

There are nine permanent prescription drug drop-off boxes in the county. Other permanent drop-off boxes are located in police department offices in Mapleton, Orem, Santaquin/Genola, Eagle Mountain, Spanish Fork and the Utah County Jail, as well as in the Salem city offices. The boxes allow for anonymous disposal of drugs and are monitored by police.

Medication also can be disposed of at home by mixing it with something like cat litter and then throwing it in the trash, county health officials said.

More information about proper disposal of prescription drugs is available at www.cleanoutthecabinet.org.

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