University Police Provide Prescription Disposal Site for Campus Community

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Northwest Arkansas Tobacco and Drug Free Coalition has donated a prescription medicine disposal box to the University of Arkansas Police Department. The box provides the campus community a place to safely dispose of used or expired prescription drugs.

“I’ve read that prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing form of drug abuse in the country, among both young people and adults,” said Capt. Gary Crain of the UAPD. “Getting these used or expired drugs out of the medicine cabinet to a place they can be disposed of safely is one effective way of preventing this kind of drug abuse.”

The box is located outside the UAPD offices in the Administrative Services Building on Razorback Rd.

The facts about prescription drug abuse are startling.

In 2010 there were more than 22,000 deaths due to prescription drug overdoses.

Families and friends are often the unwitting providers of prescription drugs that are taken from their medicine cabinets.

The Northwest Arkansas Tobacco and Drug Free Coalition is funded in part through a federal Drug Free Communities Grant, and used this funding to donate the Rx disposal box.

“One of the best things about Drug Free Communities Grant is that it allows us to solve local problems with local solutions,” said Chris White, grant manager for the coalition. “Instead of the federal government telling drug-free activists what to do, it allows us to connect resources that are specific to an individual community. Although our grant is focused on reducing youth substance use, we understand we understand the best way to affect youth is by targeting adult populations. This is why we have purchased RX boxes for the community.”

White says that anyone taking prescription drugs should remember to take them only as prescribed; never share them with anyone; always store them safely; and dispose of unused medicine immediately.