Drug takeback day events to be held across Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. — Law enforcement agencies and community partners throughout Virginia will accept unused or expired medications in celebration of Drug Take-Back Day Saturday, Oct. 28.

The day provides proper disposal of unused prescriptions, especially opioids, before they can be misused, abused, or accidentally ingested.

All take back locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can find a site near you by searching here (or view below).

Attorney General Mark Herring encouraged all Virginians to take advantage of collection locations across the Commonwealth tomorrow to “make our homes and communities safer.”

:We can all do our part to help combat this devastating opioid epidemic,” Herring said.

There is a strong link between misuse of prescription opioids, opioid addiction, and even subsequent use of heroin once prescriptions become too expensive or are no longer accessible.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse:

• Half of young people who used heroin got started by abusing prescription opioids.
• One in fifteen individuals who misuse prescription opioid painkillers will try heroin within 10 years.
• The number of opioid prescriptions has nearly tripled over the last 25 years, and the United States now accounts for nearly 100 percent of the world’s hydrocodone prescriptions and 81 percent of oxycodone prescriptions.
• The number of Americans abusing heroin nearly doubled from 2007 to 2012, with nearly 700,000 now abusing heroin.

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