Drug Return Program Expands Coverage to Opioid Pills

The local prescription drug return program will now cover the disposal of prescription opioid painkillers which are increasingly being linked to thousands of drug-related deaths, the Attorney General announced Monday, according to USA Today.

The program expansion now authorizes hospitals, pharmacies and similar prescribers to accept unused or excess opioids. USA Today reported the program would take effect on October 9.

Prior to the DEA’s drug take-back program in 2010, people dispose leftover drugs by throwing them in garbage bins or flushing them down toilets.

As people await the program’s full implementation, they can check with the DEA website’s list of disposal sites on where to drop their leftover prescription drugs for the agency’s drug take-back day on September 27.

“Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an urgent and growing threat to our nation and its citizens,'” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a video release on the Justice Department's website.

“The shocking statistics illustrate that prescription drug addiction and abuse represent nothing less than a public health crisis. And every day, this crisis touches and devastates the lives of Americans from every state, in every region and from every background and walk of life,” Holder said.

Michael Botticelli, acting director of the White House’s National Drug Control Policy, added to Holder’s statement, “Every day, I hear from another parent who has tragically lost a son or daughter to an opioid overdose. We know that if we remove unused painkillers from the home, we can prevent misuse and dependence from ever taking hold.”

“This law will now give families new options to get rid of leftover pills before they fall into the wrong hands and fuel abuse,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who has lobbied for the passage of the law with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, was quoted as saying in the report.

Latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that in 2011, over 50 percent of the 41,300 unintentional deaths due to drug overdose were linked to prescription drugs. Opioid painkillers were blamed for nearly 17,000 of those deaths, the report said.

Meanwhile, data from the Drug Enforcement Administration revealed that some 70 percent of people who have tried using opioid painkillers for non-medical uses claimed to have retrieved the drug from family members or friends as well as from home medicine cabinets.

Around 390 tons of prescription drugs were received by the DEA from 6,100 locations in April this year. The DEA has collected 4.1 million pounds of excess drugs in the past four years.

“Hopefully this program will resonate with parents and they will properly dispose of prescription pills in the home before they are found and used by their children. This could prevent a lot of lost lives if people actually do it,” saidBrady Granier, Chief Operating Officer of BioCorRx, Inc. BICX, the company that developed the Start Fresh Program. 

The Start Fresh Program is a two-tiered program that takes a different approach to addiction rehabilitation. The first phase of the program involves an outpatient medical procedure to embed a specially formulated, biodegradable naltrexone implant under the skin and fatty tissue in the lower abdominal area. Naltrexone can effectively reduce cravings for alcohol or opioids in most people.

The second tier of the program involves a private, one-on-one coaching program to address the specific needs of the individual and to help him or her plan for a life free from substance abuse.

For more information on BioCorRx, Inc.’s Start Fresh Program, you may reach the company’s headquarters via phone: 714-462-4880, or Visit www.startfreshprogram.com.