For release: April 23, 2013
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Health Promotion
contact: Lisa Schrader, 615-494-8704 or Lisa.Schrader@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — A
campus collaboration has led to a first-time prescription drug take-back
collection event at MTSU.
Campus Pharmacy, Health Services and Public Safety are
partnering to hold the MTSU Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. It will be held
from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Student Health, Wellness and
Recreation Center.
From 7 to 9 a.m., the campus community and general public
can bring outdated prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs and unused needles
to a drive-through collection area on the south side of the Campus Recreation
Center near the Campus Pharmacy drive-through. To find the rec center, a
printable campus map is available online at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap12-13.
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., medications will be accepted inside
the rec center lobby. To prepare
for the collection, organizers request that you please keep medications in
their original packaging when possible, and black out any personally identifying
information on the labels.
The event is
designed to collect expired and unneeded medicines to help prevent accidental
misuse or diversion and to keep medicines out of our groundwater supply, said
Lisa Schrader, director of Health Promotion.
“Murfreesboro
and Rutherford County have participated in drug take back events the last three
years, but we still felt like we were missing an opportunity to not have the
campus directly involved,” Schrader said. “We hope that the on-campus drop off
location will be more convenient for our students, faculty and staff, and
consequently result in more medications being disposed of safely.”
Sgt. Broede Stucky offered a Public Safety perspective of
MTSU’s prescription drug take-back day.
“This event
provides our community with a responsible avenue of disposing of potentially
hazardous items (prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, needles,
etc.) in a safe and controlled process,” Stucky said.
“Probably the
single most important issue with the drug take-back from the perspective of
public safety is the idea of there being fewer surplus or unused prescription
medicines available,” Stucky added. “We would hope that this would decrease
instances of abuse/misuse and decrease potential prescription related overdose
situations among our community.”
Pharmacist Tabby Ragland of Campus Pharmacy said the event
allows students, faculty and staff to have “a way to destroy any unused
medications they may have.”
“By
getting medications you no longer use out of your home, it cuts down
on the chance that someone could take a medication that was not intended
for them,” Ragland added. “Taking medications that were prescribed for someone
else could be harmful and dangerous. It also prevents those medications
from being disposed of by an unsafe manner, such as flushing them down the
toilet or pouring them down the sink."
To coincide with the National Prescription Drug Take-Back
Day on Saturday, April 27, there will be a community take-back event from 8
a.m. to noon at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in the parking lot of the
DePaul Building.
For more information, call 615-494-8704 or email Schrader at
Lisa.Schrader@mtsu.edu.
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Media welcomed.
Photo caption
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and there’s a simple phrase that conveys them: “I am True Blue.” Learn more at www.mtsu.edu/trueblue.
For MTSU news any time, visit
www.MTSUNews.com.
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