On Monday, Mayor Walsh, accompanied by the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation, announced Take-Back Day as a means of combating the perpetually growing issue of prescription drug and substance abuse. The mayor, as did each of his Congressional constituents, made it abundantly clear that this is just the grassroots aspect of a major initiative to make communities safer and public health better.
The idea of Take-Back Day is to get people who rummage through their medicine cabinets, often overstocked with the types of medications being easily accessed and subsequently abused by our youth, to turn in any non-essential or expired drugs that pose a much greater threat to the younger, more impressionable generation.
Each member of Congress – Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Ed Markey, Congressman Jim McGovern, Congressman John Tierney, Congressman Michael Capuano, Congressman Stephen Lynch, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, Congressman Joe Kennedy and Congresswoman Katherine Clark – has introduced or sponsored legislation to help curtail the drug abuse epidemic currently running rampant across not only the commonwealth, but the nation.
“What we’re trying to do here today is let people turnover leftover or unneeded medications at a designated drop off site,” noted the mayor. “They can be disposed of safely, and just as important taken out of our communities so that they cannot be used. Prescription Drugs especially opioids are a starting point for many with life threatening conditions. I’ve seen it in my own communities many times.”
Mayor Walsh’s notion of prescription drugs beginning at the medicine cabinet falls directly in line with what gubernatorial candidate Joe Avellone is proposing at the state level, should he be elected to succeed Governor Patrick on Beacon Hill. After a recent tour at Roxbury’s Dimock Center for drug treatment, he told us that he plans on taking a much needed look at the frequency with which doctors are so willing to prescribe medication to those afflicted.
Earlier in March, Governor Patrick declared a public health emergency in Massachusetts in response to the growing opioid addiction epidemic. By doing this, the governor was able to make make Narcan more widely available to first responders and bystanders to try and diminish symptoms of overdose, amongst taking other beneficial steps.
“Prescription drug abuse is affecting far too many families and communities across the Commonwealth,” offered Senator Elizabeth Warren. “The problem is urgent, destroying lives and breaking up families, and it will take everyone working together to combat this epidemic. National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is one way Massachusetts families can take action at home to stop this abuse and save lives.”
Mayor Walsh, as well as every single member of Congress, took the podium and let us all know that this just the beginning and will no way offer an immediate fix to the issue. But by raising awareness, increasing the chatter, and laying the foundation for a healthier, nondependent society, each hopes more solutions will snowball until the problem is at least manageable.
“I don’t want to get another call from a mother or a father who is in fear of losing their child, because of a habit that began with pills from a neighbor’s medicine cabinet,” continued Mayor Walsh. “Substance abuse requires comprehensive approaches that include prevention, intervention, and treatment. But if we can get these unneeded drugs out of our neighborhoods, we will be taking a step in the right direction.”
According to the mayor’s press office, Americans turned in over 647,000 pounds of prescription drugs at over 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its law enforcement partners at both the local and state levels across the nation.
