Police want adults to clear out their medicine cabinets

Clark County School District police officer Bob Mayer is trying to keep youths from getting involved in drugs by shutting off the source: their family and friends’ medicine cabinets.

“People need to know that 57 percent of youth who abuse prescription drugs get them from friends and relatives — usually right from the medicine cabinet,” Mayer said. “We’re trying to get people to clean out the unused stuff that is just sitting there and bring it to us to be disposed of in a safe manner.”

Mayer is part of a group that puts together monthly Pill Take Back Day events at locations across the valley. He noted that 40 percent of teens and almost as many parents think that abusing prescription painkillers is safer than abusing street drugs.

“The kids don’t know what they’re taking,” Mayer said. “They think it’s something that’s going to get them high, but a lot of times, it’s something like blood pressure medication. It can be something that interacts and becomes a lethal dose.”

The situation is complicated further by the fact that many of the youths are drinking alcohol with the prescriptions. The Clark County School District has made it a priority to get the word out.

“We’re partnered with the CARE Coalition and the PACT Coalition to organize these events,” Mayer said. “We try to be in a different part of the valley each month.”

The Connectiveness, Awareness, Resources, Education Coalition and the Prevention, Advocacy, Choices, Teamwork Coalition strive for a drug-free America. Funding for the Pill Take Back Day events comes from a grant managed by the CARE Coalition.

“We try to connect people and resources,” said CARE Coalition executive director Anna Cedro. “No one can do it all alone. We try to bring together everyone in the community who cares about preventing substance abuse.”

More than 200 pounds of prescription and over-the-counter medications were brought in for disposal at the July 26 Pill Take Back Day at Sierra Vista High School, 8100 W. Robindale Road.

“We usually have a paper shredder at events, also, so people can take care of shredding documents and helping to prevent fraud,” Mayer said. “We use the events to deliver the message about our three-pronged approach, which is education, prevention and enforcement.”

Mayer hopes education and prevention reduce enforcement.

“We’d rather have the kids not using it or stop using it than to have to do an enforcement action,” Mayer said. “The Pill Take Back Days have been very successful. We took in 50 pounds of drugs the first time we did it, and since then, we’ve never taken in less than 135 pounds. We take just about everything but needles.”

The next Pill Take Back Day is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 23 at the East Las Vegas Community Center, 250 N. Eastern Ave. For more information, call 702-366-5244.

Contact East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.