16,560 Pounds of Pills Turned In By LA Residents During Prescription Drug Take-Back Event

Drumroll, please! Here's the tally from the Drug Enforcement Administration for last Saturday's Prescription Drug Take-Back Event: Los Angeles area residents turned in 16,560 pounds of medicine - more than 8 tons. Dang. That's a lot of pills!This was the third event of its kind in the area sponsored by the DEA, and in the past 13 months, the agency and its state, local, and tribal law-enforcement and community partners have managed to collect a combined 40,971 pounds (20.5 tons) of medication from circulation in the Los Angeles area.

The DEA has begun to hold these collection events out of concern for the safety of many residents whose homes are overburdened with pills that could potentially be misused or abused. Because simply tossing the pills, or flushing them down the toilet poses environmental risk, the DEA has been encouraging people to drop off their excess medication at a variety of collection sites on specified days.