Coalition to hold pill drop on April 26 to counter drug abuse
On Saturday April 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., The Warwick Coalition and Warwick Valley Community Center are co-sponsoring the next pill drop where residents can anonymously deposit any unused pills in drop boxes along side of the Caboose on South Street.
Last October, approximately 250 pounds of pills were collected.
Ridding your home of all left over medicines not only keeps them out of the water supply, but also eliminates the single most common point of prescription pill access for youths who are abusing opiates, heroine and other mood altering drugs at record rates. Parents should lock up or toss any left-over painkillers, sleep meds, anti-anxiety meds, or stimulants which are often prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.
According to drugabuse.gov, increasing numbers of young people are presenting for inpatient treatment for opioid pain relievers (these numbers have quadrupled since 1999), and for heroin addiction. Recently painkillers like Oxycodone, Lortabs and Percoset have taken second place to marijuana abuse among adolescents. There is increasing risk of students then turning to the stronger opiate, heroin, since its price plummeted to $3.00 a bag, far below the street value of other prescription drugs. The 2011 Pride Survey and more recent Youth Epidemiological Survey that WVCC obtained in February from the local police showed an increase in prescription drug abuse and opiates.
Besides genetics, environment, peer pressure, and becoming hooked after treatment for pain, there are other reasons for the youth opiate epidemic in our communities. From 2000- 2005 Oxycontin was the most prescribed drug in the U.S. Although it was designed to reduce opiate addiction with a time release feature, abusers learned to adulterate it to enhance the impact of the opiate.
Despite the debate about marijuana being a gateway drug to opiates, a Swedish study showed how marijuana preps the brain for susceptibility to chronic opiate addiction later on. The researchers Ellgren, Spano and Hurd (2007), concluded:
"The current findings provide direct evidence in support of the gateway hypothesis that adolescent cannabis exposure contributes to greater heroin intake in adulthood ... (due to) a neurobiological convergence of the cannabinoid and opioid systems that is apparent on behavioral and molecular levels."
Take action by locking up or responsibly ridding your home of these drugs of abuse in particular. You can dispose of any type of pill at the Pill Drop. This is just one of the many ways that the Warwick Community Center and the Coalition for the Prevention of Underage Substance Abuse contribute to environmental safety and education for the Warwick community. Our next coalition meeting, at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, at the Albert Wisner Library, will be followed by a presentation of Parents Who Host Lose the Most from 6:45-7:45. All are welcome. For more information call 986-6422.
Patricia Quinn
MS, LCAT, CASAC of the Warwick Coalition and WVCC