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Residents Are Urged To Ditch Their Expired Or Unwanted Drugs On 'National Prescription Drug Take Back Day'

(WWJ) Saturday is "National Prescription Drug Take Back Day" and police are encouraging everyone in metro Detroit to use the day to get rid of their expired or unwanted drugs.

Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton he has disposed of more than 250 pounds of drugs from his small town in the last four or five years.

"The biggest problem with young people is the prescription drugs," Berlin said. "The vicodins, the codones, etc., I mean that's why we want to get these things out of people's hands."

One in seven teenagers in national studies report using prescription drugs to get high, Langton said.

"They start there and work their way up the ladder into heroin use and whatnot," he said.

This is where it ends up: Heroin use rose by 75 percent between 2007 and 2011,with an 80 percent increase in first-time use among 12 to 17-year-olds since 2002, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

And then there's this: In 2010, pharmaceutical drug overdoses were established as one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

Drug overdoses killed more Americans than firearms or motor vehicle accidents in 2010.

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