happening today Attorney General Jeff
Sessions and other federal officials
will host the first national opioid
summit it comes a day after President
Trump signed a new opioids law it
includes promoting research for new
drugs that are less addictive and
several other measures and this weekend
the Drug Enforcement Agency is
encouraging everyone to safely dispose
other unwanted prescription drugs the
idea of national drug take back day is
so those pills don't get into the wrong
hands take back days are certainly
important as the nation continues to
find ways to fight the opioid crisis and
joining us today CVS pharmacist a meal
and Safa T thanks for coming in and
thank you for having me this is an
ongoing thing the drug take-back and
this national day is just to help push
more attention to it right yes it's
actually initiative that's sponsored by
the DEA and it happens twice a year and
it's really to kind of bring to light
the issues of drug abuse and potential
overdoses and especially poisonings when
it comes to children that can happen if
drugs are left and put in the wrong
hands so people who have like a medicine
cabinet full of you know say amoxicillin
they didn't finish what do you do with
that so there's a lot of different
options and there are a lot of CVS
locations have a drug disposal unit
which you can take any type of you know
expired drug or you know old medicine
maybe from a surgery or when you were
sick and dispose of it safely and
securely that way it doesn't fall into
the wrong hands because children it's so
easy you maybe think that they can't get
into it but all it takes is a second if
you're not watching and they swallowed
too much and then you could have a
really dangerous situation on your hands
right so for people who say they're
saving things for when they get sick
again that's a bad idea
yes like oh I'm gonna save these animals
just get rid of it okay so what so what
are the medications where you say these
are really the ones what we really need
to be focused on if you have them in
your in your counter yes while all
medications could be dangerous but
especially Controlled Substances
especially with regards to narcotics
things for pain because of those you
know we're taken by either a child or
someone who has a tendency for addiction
they could either an unintentionally
overdose or you know and
a hospital and we're seeing this a lot
with teenagers even you know people in
your own home or even maybe people
who've come into the home to work on
something they might go into your
medicine cabinets it gets into the wrong
hands in lots of different ways right
especially with teens that's why we
actually do a program where we go CVS
pharmacist volunteer and we go and talk
in high schools middle school in high
school is grade seven through twelve and
kind of talk about the dangers of opioid
drug abuse and prescription drug abuse
the way to kind of bring to light and
educate students you know from an early
age not to go down that route why is it
not always a good idea to try to dispose
of it yourself you know throw it away
yourself or flush it down the toilet you
know a lot of people think that that's
the way to go right right so if we're
throwing things away it could always you
know drugs can always be taken out of
the trash and for flushing stuff down
the toilet you know you're kind of
getting into the water supply and things
like that so that's not ideal ideally
the safest way is to get rid of it and a
drug disposal kiosk and there's also any
fire department in our Police Department
they always have a take-back bin or you
know something on those lines to safely
dispose of the medications that you can
go to anytime yeah anytime there's
always I know that CVS has donated over
900 bins to local law enforcement across
the country so there's you know
definitely bins and especially on
Saturday for drug take-back day if you
go online you can see all the different
places where you can bring back drugs
and almost every local police department
is on there do you know when you take
these drugs back is there kind of a
relief that you sometimes see from
patients that are just glad that they're
just out of they're out of the house yes
yes a lot of people they come in with
like a huge garbage bag and sometimes
it's you know reasons to avoid abuse and
other times it's a family member may
have passed away and now they have all
these medications they don't know what
to do with them so it's really nice to
be able to you know take that pressure
off of them they don't have to worry
about it getting into the wrong hands or
something bad happening what are some of
the safest tips for let's say storage of
prescription medications so it's not
expired just yet you're you know you
might you're one of those maybe get sick
a lot what are the best ways to kind of
store medication yeah yeah so a lot of
people think keeping their medicine in
the medicine cabinet
is a good idea but usually medicine
cabinets are in the bathroom that's
where really steamy you know really
moisture there so that can actually
damage the medications so it's really
best to be kept in like a high shelf in
the kitchen away from where children can
kind of
you know reach it and make sure that the
safety caps are always in the lock
position because you don't want to you
know leave things open or have an
easy-open cap especially if there's
children in the house so really just
high and up and out of the way is the
best place sometimes pets like a dog who
lives in my house it gets into lower
cabinets so you know you think about
pets to hang around eating human
medication right exactly I actually get
phone calls about that sometimes as well
because we have the poison
you know hotline for children but we
have to think about our animals as well
because people have come in to me with a
bottle let's shoot open and they're like
I don't know what what to do so it's you
know you got to think about that as well
because pets or children also yeah my
dog took all my mom's Fosamax once when
she was visiting her suitcase oh my
goodness fine loving kickin yes and
we've got some locations there on the
screen so again you said you can go
online and figure out where the best
option for you as and where do you go
online should we go to CBS or go to the
drug take-back website CBS com that's
where you can see where our specific
drug disposal units are we have about
nine in Central Florida and but if you
go to the DEA drug take-back website
that's where they list everything you
know in the whole country based on your
zip code where you can go as well okay
so again on Saturday get out get rid of
that stuff or any time your pharmacies
in police departments or fire
departments thank you so much Jamie