A county in Pennsylvania is taking the war against drugs and addiction into their own hands. The district attorney and police departments throughout Montgomery County are asking people to dispose of unused or expired drugs in their homes.
The goal is to dispose of the drugs in an environmentally responsible way, instead of flushing them or dumping the drugs down a drain, which releases toxins into the ecosystem. The hope is to raise awareness about leaving unused drugs around for teenagers who might then experiment with the drugs.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, every day 2,500 children ages 12 to `7 abuse a pain reliever for the first time. About seventy percent of the prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines are obtained from a friend or relative.
"It is very common that drug-addicted individuals often started their drug usage when they were young teenagers taking prescriptions out of the family medicine cabinet," said Risa Vetri Ferman, the Montgomery County District Attorney.
Painkillers like Vicodin, Percocet and especially Oxycontin are highly addictive. Ferman said that over the years police have learned from addicts that early experimentation can become a "full-blown addiction" in time.
"They become addicted to Oxycontin, but because it’s expensive, they move to heroin," said Ferman. "As we do death investigations, we see many heroin overdoses, and when we talk to their families we find out they often started on Oxycontin or other prescription drugs. The accessibility of unused prescription medication starts some of these kids on the path of drug addiction, and that unfortunately has landed too many of them in the grave."
