Mississippi State University collected 14.7 pounds of prescription drugs for its Prescription Take Back Day Thursday on the Drill Field. Although MSU held the event Thursday, National Prescription Take Back Day is officially Oct. 27.
“There has been an increase in individuals overdosing on prescription drugs, so the Drug Enforcement Administration organized a National Take Back Day,” MSU Police Department Corporal Emmitt Johnson Jr. said.
The DEA initiative aims to spread awareness about the prescription drug health crisis, while also collecting old prescription drugs to prevent further addictions and overdoses.
“That’s our goal,” MSU Health & Wellness Educator Santee Ezell-Johnson said Thursday. “To bring awareness and hopefully get some old medications that can be disposed of.”
“This age group between 18 and 25 is increasing when it comes to prescription drug use,” Ezell-Johnson added. “We have students who may sell their prescribed medications and they may think it’s actually helpful in terms of improving their grades, which it is not.”
According to the MSU Department of Health Promotion & Wellness, an estimated 255 people in Mississippi died of opioid and heroin overdose in 2017. 91 of those deaths were caused by prescription drug overdose. The 2017 deaths are an 18 percent increase from 2016.
“So we do want students to be careful if they are prescribed medication,” Ezell Johnson said. “Take your medications and do not give them to anyone else.”
The MSU Department of Health Promotion & Wellness partnered with the MSU Police Department, the Starkville Police Department and the Mississippi Coalition of Partners in Prevention to hold the event on campus Thursday.
“We decided to team up today to provide opioid information to our students, but also we wanted to provide resources and information about our campus dropbox and take old prescriptions,” Ezell-Johnson said.
The MSU Police Department has a permanent drop box on campus for collecting old prescription drugs.
“We have a permanent drop box at the MSu police Department where individuals throughout the community can come by to drop off prescription drugs,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of like a UPS drop box, where they can pull the handle out, drop it in, flip the drawer back up and it drops down into a reserved area.”
“We ask people not to drop off items that have liquid in them or items that may have a needle inside them,” Johnson added.
The American Medical Association Alliance also provided resources for the event Thursday.
“We’re also fortunate to have disposable packets from the American Medical Association Alliance,” Ezell-Johnson said. “They were able to give us 200 (medication disposal) packets, which also gives information about prescription drugs.”
SPD Public Information Officer Brandon Lovelady said hosting Take Back Days is important because the events provide a safe way to dispose of old prescriptions.
“This gives a safe way to dispose of prescription medications because it can be hazardous to personally dispose of certain medications,” Lovelady said.
Johnson said he also hoped the event on campus would spread information about groups at MSU that can help students.
“We just want our students to be aware that (prescription drug abuse) is something that’s going on now and if they have friends that are actually taking prescription drugs to be able to stay up for tests or whatever the situation may be, we just want them to know that we do have departments on campus that will help those friends,” Johnson said. “And just for them to be aware and be able to reach out to the departments that we have on campus as resources for them.”
Ezell-Johnson said one resource on campus is MSU’s Collegiate Recovery Community.
“They help students out by providing resources to them. We have about 17 students who are in recovery now, and they are our advocates,” Ezell-Johnson said. “They host seminars and recovery nights, so it’s always great for students to share their stories— whether it be alcohol-related, prescription drug-related or whatever it may be.”
For those in the Starkville community, Lovelady said SPD also participates in Prescription Take Back events at Vowell’s every year.
“We intend to continue to participate in the Take Back initiative twice a year so people in the community can have an easy way to dispose of the prescription medications,” Lovelady said. “You don’t want your medications to get in the hands of someone who will abuse them.”
SPD's next Take back Day at Vowell’s will happen on a currently undetermined Saturday this spring.