Kentuckians can safely dispose of prescription drugs on Saturday at around 50 locations during National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
The national movement is aimed at safely disposing of medicines that, in the wrong hands, could be dangerous. In April, during the last campaign, Kentucky collected 9,843 pounds of unused prescription drugs, according to Gov. Andy Beshear’s office.
“Safely disposing of prescription drugs means we can create safe spaces for those in recovery,” Van Ingram, the executive director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, said in a statement. “Only together can we keep reducing overdose deaths and support treatment resources, and National Prescription Drug Take Back Day can be the first step for so many. If you or a loved one need help now, know there are resources out there for you to get help today.”
People who cannot make it to a drop-off location Saturday can do so year-round at Kentucky’s 200 permanent drug disposal locations in 87 counties.
“One life lost to a drug overdose is one too many, and we have to do everything in our power to keep our loved ones safe and get them into recovery,” Beshear said in a statement. “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is just one way we can make sure drugs are disposed of properly and prevent drug abuse, and I encourage every single Kentuckian with out-of-date or unused prescription drugs to take part.”
‘Use caution, no matter what’
Putting drug paraphernalia and nonprescription drugs in the hands of researchers can also reveal public health risks, a recent announcement showed.
New testing of discarded syringes in Fayette County revealed substances that warrant community caution, the University of Kentucky’s Harm Reduction Hub and Lexington recovery organization Voices of Hope announced this month.
Jimmy Chadwell, the president of Voices of Hope, said these substances aren’t new to Kentucky but they are new to Fayette County. And while the discovery is not necessarily an emergency, there are always risks involved when people are in active-use addiction, he said.
“I think that people should always use caution, no matter what,” Chadwell said.
The University of Kentucky’s Harm Reduction Hub recently started testing syringes from various communities, Chadwell said, to see how many different chemicals are in them. Any concerning results are then shared with the county where those syringes came from, he said.
Chadwell did not have the specific location the recent batch — the largest tested yet — came from, but did say they were all from people who inject drugs in Fayette County. He also did not know how many syringes were tested.
The substances found in a large batch of recently-tested used syringes from Fayette County include carfentanil, xylazine, medetomidine and BTMPS (a plasticizer) — which are linked to overdoses, severe wounds and medical complications, according to Voices of Hope.
According to the organization:
- Carfentanil is an extremely potent fentanyl analog that may not always be detected by fentanyl test strips, greatly increasing overdose risk. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, carfentanil is “10,000 times more potent than morphine.”
- Xylazine is a veterinary sedative associated with severe skin wounds and tissue damage.
- Medetomidine is a veterinary tranquilizer similar to xylazine, linked to rapid-onset
- withdrawal symptoms requiring medical care.
- BTMPS is a plasticizer used in the manufacture of plastics, which in animal studies has been associated with heart and lung damage and sudden death.
Kentuckians should take a few precautions, Chadwell said, to keep themselves and others safe. They include:
- Never use alone.
- Always have Narcan available, which is available for free at a variety of places across Kentucky.
- Learn how to provide rescue breathing.
- Several organizations, including Voices of Hope, also provide free fentanyl test strips. Voices of Hope, located at 644 North Broadway in Lexington, also has xylazine test strips and is working to get medetomidine test strips, Chadwell said.
Chadwell compared Narcan to a “fire extinguisher.”
“We don’t have a fire extinguisher in our office in hopes that a fire breaks out, but we have one just in case it breaks out,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to go start a fire and then put it out if I have a fire extinguisher. Same concept with Narcan. Even if you’re someone that’s never used drugs, you don’t even know anyone that used drugs, you can be an innocent bystander and see someone overdosing and have that and be able to respond.”
“We want to get the education out there,” Chadwell said. “It’s not necessarily that it’s so much more dangerous than it was a few weeks ago. It’s just another reminder there are new substances — and new substances we haven’t detected yet can also come around. If they do, we’ll be sure to let the public know.”