Alabama city gathered thousands of dollars worth of prescription medication on Take Back day

By Staff Writer

Law enforcement officials in an Alabama city recently revealed that more than $2,000 worth of prescription medications were collected during a drug disposal event last month.

According to BaldwinCountyNow.com, the city took part in the national Take Back campaign that urged Americans to turn in any expired or unused medication. A lieutenant in the city said that the majority of drug crimes are related to prescription pills, and more than 50 percent of children get the drugs from their homes.

“A lot of kids we’re stopping now have Lortab in their pocket or some other drug. A lot of time, they don’t even know what they have,” the lieutenant told the news source.

School officials from the Alabama city said that, in the past, teenage students have been transported to the hospital after taking pills of an unknown type.

According to the news source, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Office of Diversion Control collected more than 242,000 pounds of prescription medications from over 4,000 sites across the country.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that prescription drug abuse by teenagers exceeds marijuana use.