Photo courtesy of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
In honor of National Pharmaceutical Take-Back Day, the Long Police Department (LBPD) and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center will team up to collect prescription drugs in a take-back event slated for Saturday, October 22.
The event will be held at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, located at 2801 Atlantic Avenue, and will offer an anonymous and free drive-thru service from 10:00AM to 2:00PM.
Drivers do not need to get out of their vehicles; participants can conveniently drive up to a disposal bin where they can drop their potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. The 25th, 50th, 75th and 100th participating drivers will be awarded a pair of Aquarium of the Pacific tickets.
This initiative hopes to bring prevention to pill abuse and theft, after an alarming increase of prescription drug abuse in the United States, according to the LBPD. Many do not know how to properly dispose of their prescription drugs and often flush the drugs down the toilet, throwing them away and causing potential safety and health hazards, officials stated.
Once the unwanted pharmaceuticals are collected, they will be safely destroyed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Previous events by the police department yielded hundreds of pounds of pharmaceuticals.
For more information, click here.
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