The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in partnership with District of Columbia agencies, hosted the annual National Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 26 throughout the area, aimed to help prevent medication misuse among people and families nationwide.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) facilitated various collection sites throughout the District for residents to discard expired, unneeded, or unused prescription drugs from homes and medicine cabinets with no questions asked.
“By safely disposing of prescription drugs that are no longer needed, we can protect our loved ones and our community,” Bowser said in a statement. “We want people to know that these simple actions can prevent addiction and save lives. We also want people to keep spreading the word that treatment works, and if you or someone you know needs help, reach out.”
According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, there are three classes of prescription drugs that are often abused: opioids (often prescribed to treat pain), central nervous system (CNS) depressants (tranquilizers, hypnotics, and sedatives used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders), and stimulants (most often prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The DEA outlines misuse of prescription medications as taking someone else’s personal prescription, mixing prescriptions with alcohol or illicit drugs, or taking drugs to feel numb or high.
Last year, the District of Columbia saw record numbers of opioid overdose fatalities, inciting urgency among residents and drug recovery advocates alike to call for a public emergency on the opioid crisis.
Locally, the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s (OCME) 2023 report of opioid-related overdose deaths shows that 58 of the 518 overdoses were directly related to prescription opioids.
Although much of the city’s overdose rates reflect the impact of illicit street drugs including the rise of fentanyl and its analogs, potent synthetic opioids– the dangers of misusing prescription drugs pose a serious threat to communities across the District.
Shedding Light on the Common Misuse of Prescribed Medications
While manning a table at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, Dr. Nora Green Lane, program manager of DC Opioid Response at Wards 7 and 8 DC Prevention Center, shed light on the common misuse of prescribed medications, highlighting the risks of unintentional incidents.
“This is not just [about] getting the prescriptions out. It’s really [to raise] awareness of the potential for misuse of prescribed substances,” Lane told The Informer. “Sometimes, you may have taken your medication and forgot that you actually took it, and now you’re taking more of it. That puts you in a situation where you’re potentially overusing it.”
In some instances, prescription opioids used to treat pain pose their own risks.
“Maybe you feel more pain today than you did yesterday, and you’re going to use a little bit more [of a dosage]. Those [factors] create that potentiality of [misuse],” Lane explained.
Properly monitoring prescription medications kept in the house is another key component of protecting against prescription misuse. Research and statistics show an increasing number of teenagers are using prescription pills to get high, slowly impacting drug use and overdose rates nationwide.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2021 NSDUH Annual National Report, “among people aged 12 or older in 2021, an estimated 1.8% (or about 5.0 million people) had a prescription opioid use disorder in the past 12 months (2021 DT 5.1).”
In the District alone, the Mayor’s office reported a city-wide survey revealing that “one out of every eight middle and high school age students admitted they had taken pills not prescribed to them.”
The risk of taking unprescribed pills strongly increases the likelihood of ingesting drugs containing fentanyl, the potent synthetic drug penetrating the illicit drug market and fatally impacting opioid deaths rates throughout the country.
City-wide, the Department of Behavioral Health, prevention centers, and faith-based institutions actively work around the year to address the growing concern of youth opioid addiction while providing preventative programs and resources to bring the local opioid crisis to a hopeful standstill.
“The agency is committed to providing a range of unique support to address substance use among all populations. Youth engagement is critical to youth substance use prevention. Early intervention is vital for youth,” said DBH Director Dr. Barbara Bazron. “Every year that substance use is delayed while the adolescent brain develops, the risks of addition and substance misuse decrease.”
