Bring Old Pills to City Hall Saturday, No Questions Asked

It's National Prescription Drugs Take Back Day, time of year to clean out your medicine cabinet of old pills, and other prescriptions drugs.

Take them over to Laguna Niguel City Hall at 30311 Crown Valley Pkwy., on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., no questions asked.

Join in the effort to help prevent pill abuse and theft, as the Orange County Health Care Agency, local law enforcement agencies and community partners collaborate with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to collect expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs on National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

As a parent it is important that the medicine cabinet be a clean, safe place.  Disposing medications takes away the temptation and the ability to just experiment and statistics show that the age of experimentation is between the ages of 12 and 15.  

"I would never have thought 25 years ago when I moved to Laguna Niguel that prescription drugs would be a problem in this community.  It is as big a problem here as anywhere in America" said Natalie Costa, resident, advocate and producer of about the drug epdidemic in Orange County. "We all have to be proactive in early education and taking precautions to make sure that drugs do not wind up in the wrong hands.  

"With the growing epidemic of fatal prescription drug overdoses occurring in our area, as well as across the country, it is important to get rid of your expired or unused prescription pills," she said. 

Most prescription drug issues with young men and women start in the home in the family medicine cabinet. Realtors instruct you to lock up medications when a home is to be shown, as the medicine cabinet is often a source of theft.  It is very important to dispose of unused or unwanted medication appropriately.  Do not flush it as it affects the water table.  The DEA sponsors this annual drug take back day so you can confidently rid your home of unused or unwanted medications.  Last year the DEA received 990,000 pounds of unwanted/unused prescriptions.  

Another mother who knows all too well about prescription drug overdose is resident, and also an advocate, and producer of Overtaken, a documentart about drug abuse in the O.C., Jodi Barber. 

"With the growing epidemic of fatal prescription drug overdoses occurring in our area, as well as across the country, it is important to get rid of your expired or unused prescription pills," Barber said. "Please take your expired or unused pills to your nearest sheriff or police station and dispose of them. Also, it is important to lock up your pills. How many of you know how many are in your bottle?"