MTSU Campus Pharmacy pharmacist Tabby Ragland verifies information from prescription medications she checked during the third MTSU Prescription Drug Take Back Day April 24 outside the Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center. (MTSU photo by News and Media Relations)

MTSU Campus Pharmacy and Campus Police are sponsoring the fourth drug take back event on the MTSU campus Thursday, Sept. 25, on campus.

Expired, unused, and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medicines will be accepted from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a special drive-up location near the Campus Pharmacy drive-thru on Blue Raider Drive on the east side of campus. A printable campus map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap14-15.

Pharmacy and police officials ask that participants leave medicines in their original packaging when possible, but for prescription medicines, black out any personally identifying information on the label.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to accept sharps (needles) at this event,” said Lisa Schrader, director of health promotion in the Department of Health Services.

This event is part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s overall efforts to remove excess drugs from communities where they could be abused or misused, diverted into the wrong hands or disposed of in environmentally unsafe ways.

The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, secure and environmentally responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse and trafficking of medications.

This is important because the nonmedical use of controlled substance medications is at an all-time high, with 6.8 million Americans reporting having abused prescription drugs in 2012, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health released in 2013.

This same study revealed more than 54 percent of people who abuse prescription pain relievers got them through friends or relatives, a statistic that includes raiding the family medicine cabinet.

Last spring, 60 pounds of medicine were collected at the MTSU collection event. In total, nearly 400 tons of medicines have been disposed of nationally since take-back collections were initiated in 2010.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)