Prescription Drug Take-Back Box Installed in Public Safety’s HQ

Through a partnership with Penn Medicine and the State of Pennsylvania, Penn Police will take back unused prescription drugs, in the newly installed Take-Back Box, the only of its kind in University City.

The Pennsylvania Prescription Drug Take-Back Program is focused on alleviating the health and safety concerns from the diversion and abuse of prescription drugs by helping our citizens properly dispose of unused prescription medications. Many young people who abuse prescription drugs take them from medicine cabinets. Keeping unused opioids or other common drugs of abuse in a medicine cabinet is no longer safe or responsible.

Prescription drug misuse, abuse and overdose are growing concerns across the nation. According to a 2015 survey in Pennsylvania, 41.0% of prescription-drug-using students indicated taking the drugs from a family member living in their home, 41.8% indicated that a friend or family member gave them to the student, 26.9% indicated that they bought them from someone, 14.1% indicated they took them from someone not related to them, and 12.9% indicated they took them from relatives who were not living in their home. (PA Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs)

Penn Police and the Penn Health System are joining in the nation-wide effort to combat the opioid crisis.