Vandal Health and Education hosted the prescription drug takeback event “Donuts for Drugs” in order to remove as many unused and left-over prescriptions drugs in the community as possible Tuesday.
Along with an opportunity to dispose of unwanted or unused prescriptions, the event also offered donuts to anybody willing to participate in answering trivia questions about substance abuse across the U.S.
Lauren Kees, a senior working for Vandal Health and Education, said the amount of prescription drugs being turned in by the community has been increasing steadily since the program’s inception. Kees said this year broke the collection record.
“It’s been increasing every year,” Kees said. “In the past — the first year I think we got around 3 pounds of prescription drugs. Our record was around 7 pounds, and then today we broke that within the first 10 minutes.”
Tyson Berrett, captain of Moscow Police Department’s campus division, said the exact weight of the prescriptions acquired Tuesday won’t be known until later, just before they are disposed of.
“We don’t look at the drugs that we’re taking in,” Berrett said. “The drugs come in, I put them in (a) locked container and take them to our property room. They weigh them, package and incinerate them.”
Unused or left-over prescription drugs can often lead to a person abusing them or trying them for recreational purposes, Kees said.
“Prescription drug abuse is pretty common, and a lot of time it starts by just having left over prescriptions in medicine cabinets,” Kees said. “Friends and family can take them without you noticing, and that’s how a lot of the problems start. So, we are out here trying to raise awareness that drug abuse is real, it happens fairly frequently and has pretty adverse effects.
Berrett said prescription drugs are a common starting point for people and can lead to other drug dependencies quickly.
“It can definitely lead to the abuse of other drugs,” Berrett said. “Especially people who become addicted to opiates and can’t get them prescribed by a doctor anymore. They can easily turn to heroine or other illicit drugs.”
Kees said ingesting more than the prescribed amount, using prescriptions recreationally, giving prescriptions away or taking medications from other people are all forms of abuse that can have severe negative effects on students’ lives.
Kees advocated for resources on campus designed to help individuals overcome substance abuse and addiction.
“We have a lot of resources on our campus that students may seek help from,” Kees said. “I would definitely start with the Counseling and Testing Center because it’s free, it’s open to all students and they make it really easy for you. From there they can refer you to other places on or off campus.”
Jeneba Hoene, another student working for Vandal Health and Education, said there are also a lot of misconceptions about drug abuse rates, and how they can be overestimated or overgeneralized.
“College students, as a population, tend to misuse prescription medication at a higher rate then average populations,” Hoene said. “But, it’s not quite as high as some people think — according to the National College Health Assessment data, a survey given to students at UI, in 2015 students reported they estimated 18 percent of students’ misuse medication, but it’s actually closer to 9 percent.”
Brock Ashley, a sophomore at UI, said he was sad, but not completely shocked, to hear some dramatic statistics about drug abuse in the U.S.
“They were telling me about 15,000 people overdose on opioids and prescription drugs per year,” Ashley said. “It’s really sad to hear, but unfortunately I kind of already knew that. So, prescription abuse is definitely a good focus point to raise awareness, and really show people what’s going on so we can prevent things like this from growing.”
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @WardOfTheWorlds