The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection recently announced a public education campaign. Their hope is to educate people about the proper storage and disposal of expired or unwanted prescription medications.
"All too often the medications prescribed by a doctor to parents and grandparents are being accessed by their kids," said Jerry Farrell, Jr., the Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner. "We need to keep these medications locked up and send a message to our children that they are potentially dangerous."
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 3,300 children between the ages of 12 and 17 will abuse prescription medication for the first time. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, seventy percent of teenagers who abused say they got their prescription drug supply from family and friends.
The Lock Your Meds campaign hopes to help the environment in Connecticut. "Homeowners have been told for years that toilet flushing was the safest way to dispose expired or unwanted prescription drugs – that advice has now changed," Farrell said. "When medicines are flushed down the toilet, the waste enters the sewage system and is transported by pipeline to the local public wastewater treatment facility. These facilities are not designed to treat or remove pharmaceutical chemicals."
For more information go to
www.ct.gov/dcp or contact the DCP Prescription Monitoring Program at (860) 713-6073.