Click for full Newsletter
WHEN THERE ARE ANY VISITORS IN YOUR HOUSE, YOUR MEDICINE CABINET CAN BE OPEN GAME FOR DRUG THIEVES.
In fact, 70 % of drug addicts reported that they started their addiction to prescription medications from family, friends and strangers’ medicine cabinets.
MOST COMMONLY TARGETED MEDICATIONS INCLUDE:
Opiates: pain killers and muscle relaxers like OxyContin and Vicodin
Depressants: anxiety, depression, and sleep medication
Stimulants: ADHD medications such as Ritalin and Adderall
PROTECT & SAFEGUARD YOUR HOME
Clean out your medicine cabinets.
Dispose of any unused, unneeded, or expired medications at drop boxes.
Report any stolen prescriptions to the police.
Consider purchasing and using a lock box for hiding medications in a discrete location in your home so they are not easy for others to find.
Keep track of your medicine. Count how many pills you have at any given time to check for missing pills. Don’t share your medications under any circumstances. If a family member or friend is injured, instead of “sharing” a pain reliever, make sure he or she sees a healthcare professional for care.
Keep a low profile. Your medicines are your business. There’s no reason to tell people about the medicines you take.
Store your medications in a secure and dry place (not bathrooms).
Properly dispose of old or unused medicines. If a Take Back Program is not available, prescription drugs can be placed in a container mixed with used coffee grounds or kitty litter and thrown in the garbage.
DROP BOXES ARE AVAILABLE AT:
Mahwah Police Department
221 Franklin Turnpike
201-529-1000
Montvale Police Department
12 Mercedes Drive
201-391-4600
Westwood Police Department
101 Washington Avenue
201-664-7000
Oakland Police Department
295 Ramapo Valley Road
201-337-6171
To find prescription drug boxes in additional Bergen County towns or other counties visit www.americanmedicinechest.com
SOBERING STATISTICS
A CDC study found that the users of prescription drugs are 40 times more likely to use heroin than others, a figure that cements commonly prescribed medication as a threshold for use of more dangerous substances.
Almost 4 in 10 teens (38 %) who have misused or abused a prescription drug have obtained them from their parents’ medicine cabinet.
1 in 3 teens thinks abusing prescription drugs is safer than street drugs and that it is OK to occasionally abuse prescription drugs.
The amount of prescription painkillers prescribed in 2010 was enough to medicate every adult in America around the clock for a month.
Nearly 15,000 people die of prescription drug overdoses annually. In New Jersey, two-thirds of drug-related deaths involve prescription drugs.
More than half of parents (55 %) say anyone can access their medicine cabinet, and almost three-quarters of teens (73 %) say it is easy to access prescription drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinet.
Source: “The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study” 2013
HELP PREVENT ABUSE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
It is very important to properly dispose of unused prescription medications. Keeping unused opioids or other common drugs of abuse in a medicine cabinet is not safe.
ORDER A PORTABLE MED LOCK BOX FOR YOUR HOME ONLINE TODAY AT:
http://www.lockmed.com/