Long Beach joins national effort with Drug Take-Back event this Saturday

Long Beach, CA – Together with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Long Beach Police Department is holding a National Drug Take-Back event on October 28, 2023. The goal is to stop people from becoming addicted to drugs and dying from overdoses. The event will be held from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital Parking Lot. It is meant to urge people to safely get rid of medications that they no longer need or that have expired.

According to Rockwall News, a similar event will be held in Rockwall on Saturday this weekend. The local police department is encouraging everyone who wants to dispose unneeded medication to attend the event. Similar events are organized in almost every city nationwide in effort to reduce drug abuse in America.

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The Drug Take-Back program solves a very important public health and safety problem. The 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 9.7 million people abusing prescription pain killers, 4.9 million abusing prescription drugs, and 5.9 million abusing prescription sleep aids or tranquilizers. The study found that a lot of the prescription drugs that were abused came from family and friends, usually from the medicine cabinet at home.

Drug abuse, which can lead to accidental poisoning, overdose, and abuse, needs to be stopped by holding events like the National Drug Take-Back. We are all making our town safer by taking the easy step of getting rid of these things from our homes.

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The process is meant to be quick and private. People can get rid of their pills and patches at the DEA, but they can’t take liquids, needles, or other sharp objects. You can use the service for free, no matter what. People in the US turned in almost 883,000 pounds of prescription drugs at almost 6,300 places run by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners last year.

Taking part in the drug take-back scheme is also good for the environment. Putting medicines down the toilet or in the trash could be unsafe and harmful to your health. Getting rid of things the right way keeps them from polluting water supplies or hurting ocean life.

The people in charge in Long Beach are hoping that a lot of people will show up. The local community is often at the front of health and safety efforts, and now they have another chance to set a standard for how everyone else should act to protect public health.

Residents can go to DEATakeBack.com to get more information or find the closest collection spot. For questions about the event, you can email LBPDmediarelations@longbeach.gov or call (562) 570-5273 to reach the individual in charge of media relations.

Long Beach leaders and police are always working to stop drug abuse and overdoses in the community. This event is just one example of their dedication to making sure everyone lives in a safe and healthy place.