San Diego County CA— The final tally is in from the 14^th National Prescription Take-Back Day that was held on Saturday, October 28, 2017. DEA and its partners took back prescription drugs at 41 locations in San Diego County and four locations in Imperial County.
Over the course of four hours, 11,866.9 pounds or almost 5.9 tons of drugs were turned into the locations in both counties. San Diego Citizens turned in 11381.1 pounds and Imperial County citizens turned in 485.8 pounds of prescription drugs. Nationwide the DEA and its more than 4,200 local and tribal law enforcement partners a record-setting 912,305 pounds—456 tons—of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for disposal at more than 5,300 collection sites. That is almost six tons more than was collected at last spring’s event. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by DEA since the fall of 2010 to 9,015,668 pounds, or 4,508 tons.
“We are pleased to see that Southern Californians are motivated and continue to make their homes safer for our youth,” says DEA San Diego Special Agent in Charge William R. Sherman. “Citizens can now take advantage of the permanent drop off boxes at over 41 locations in San Diego County in the stations of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego Police Department, Oceanside Police Department, Escondido Police Department, Carlsbad Police Department, Coronado Police Department and the Chula Vista Police Department. We thank all our law enforcement partners in this effort.”
Other participants in this initiative include the San Diego County Sheriff’s, La Mesa Police Department, El Cajon Police Department, Chula Vista Police Department, Carlsbad Police Department, Oceanside Police Department, Coronado Police Department, Escondido Police Department, SDSU Police Department, Veterans Administration Police, San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, US Attorney’s Office, SD County Probation, US Probation, California Department of Justice, Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, HIDTA, California Border Alliance Group, San Diego Police Department, US Marine Corps, US Navy, San Diego Community College Police Department, San Diego County Supervisor Dave Roberts, San Diego County Health & Human Services, Californians for Drug Free Youth, and San Diego County Prevention Coalitions, Calexico Police Department, Imperial Police Department, El Centro Police Department, Brawley Police Department, Calipatria Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Imperial County Sheriff’s Office and Imperial County Office of Education.
For more information about Prescription Drug Abuse, please visit www.dea.gov.