This news item expired on Saturday, December 30, 2017 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
Most abused prescription drugs come from family and friends. You could be a drug dealer without even knowing it.
One thing you can do to help keep prescription drugs out of reach for kids in our community is get unnecessary drugs out of your medicine cabinet.
There are multiple prescription drug drop boxes in Buncombe County. They are located:
- The lobby of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office at 339 New Leicester Hwy,
- The lobby of the County Courthouse at 60 Court Plaza,
- The lobby of the Asheville Police Department at 100 Court Plaza.
Overdose deaths involving prescription medications used to treat pain have increased to almost 17,000 deaths a year in the United States.
An estimated 493,000 people, age 12 or older used a prescription pain reliever nonmedically for the first time within the past 12 months. This averages to about 1,350 first time users per day.
When dropping off medications, please follow these instructions:
- remove identification from all medications.
- separate pill, liquids and inhalers.
- use a different disposal paper or plastic bag for each type of medication.
- empty dry pill medications into a bag
- leave liquid medications in their original container and place in a separate bag
- NO radioactive medications such as cancer medications, needles or sharps accepted.