(Omaha, NE) -- The DEA Omaha Division releases the figures from last month's Drug Take Back Day.
Residents across the five state DEA Omaha Division, which includes Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, dropped off 18,729 pounds of unneeded medications at 176 collection sites on April 30. Nationally, DEA collected more than 720,000 pounds of medications at 5,144 collection sites. Since 2010, DEA, along with its law enforcement partners, has collected nearly 16 million pounds of unneeded prescription medications.
“The success of our event wouldn’t be possible without the assistance of our state, local and tribal law enforcement partners,” DEA Omaha Division Special Agent in Charge Justin King said. “This spring, despite several rain showers across parts of our Division, we collected more than nine tons of medications. We’re grateful for the support of our communities and to everyone who dropped off medications. Together, we removed the temptation for misuse of unused prescription medications from quite a few households.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the United States, over 107,000 people died as the result of a drug overdose last year. This figure means that someone in the United States is dying of a drug overdose every five minutes.