8th National DEA Prescription Drug Take-Back

It's time to get rid of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.  Bring your pills for disposal to either the Municipal Parking Lot at 801 Anderson Street or in front of the Sheriff’s Office at 140 Blountville Bypass. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. Collections are also taking place at the Johnson City Police Department, the Elizabethton Chamber of Commerce and the Jonesborough Fire Hall.

Last October, Americans turned in 324 tons (over 647,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at over 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners.  When those results are combined with what was collected in its seven previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 3.4 million pounds—more than 1,700 tons—of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.  Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Spring Cleaning Time - Medicine Cabinets

Think About Them If You Smoke

Our wonderful YWCA TechGyrls...great message!

Drug Courts Work

Our panelists:
Jan D. Stout, Bob Bogart, Suzanne Brown and David Ray

Every year there are over a million prison bound, drug abusing offenders who pose little threat to society. Upon leaving prison, most relapse and commit new crimes. Half are re-incarcerated for new violations.

At our last meeting the Coalition learned about the Recovery Drug Courts in Sullivan County. These courts increase the likelihood for successful rehabilitation through continuous and intense judicially supervised treatment, including frequent monitoring, consistent supervision, intensive treatment and rewards or sanctions.

Sullivan County Recovery Drug Court Goals:

1. Reduce the destruction of lives and property due to drug and alcohol addiction
2. Reduce the overall impact to society by reducing the number of of repeat offenders in the judicial system for drug or alcohol related crimes
3. Provide mandatory supervised structured treatment to drug offenders without regard to wealth
4. Educate the public about the mission and goals of the Recovery Drug Court

For more information, go to our website and watch the meeting presentation.

FDA's "The Real Cost" Campaign

The FDA has a new campaign directed at youth. The above video is engaging because it slowly reveals the "bully." Although the numbers will be harder to measure, we hope this campaign will be as successful as the "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign. That media campaign helped 1,600,000 smokers attempt to quit, with 200,000 reporting success three months later. The CDC estimates that half of those will be permanent.

Marijuana Was the Hot Topic at the CADCA National Leadership Forum

Keynote speaker, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, presents the science of marijuana addiction and other developmental issues.

Thank You CVS

Following the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon Generals first report on tobacco and recognition of the progress that has been made during that time, good tobacco prevention news continues. With its announcement last week of plans to discontinue tobacco sales on October 1, 2014, CVS has made a commitment to the health of its customers. We hope other retailers will join the effort to prevent youth from initiating tobacco use. Eighty-eight percent of current smokers started before they were 18. If we could keep youth from smoking until they were of legal age to do so, we could eliminate preventable tobacco related diseases in the next 50 years.