More than 60,000 young children end up in emergency rooms each year because they got into medicines while their caregiver wasn’t looking. Every day in the United States, an average of 2,000 teenagers use prescription drugs without a doctor’s guidance for the first time.

Safeguard medicine in your home and take extra precautions with:

• • Pain Pills

  • Anxiety Medicine

  • Insulin Syringes

  • Anti-Depressants

  • Sleeping Pills

  • ADHD Medicine

  • Other strong medicine

If you suspect a child might have gotten into medicine, call the poison control center right away at 800-222-1222. Request a medication lockbox from CLASS here.

ACTION YAC in collaboration with our local and state governments, police departments, Sheriff’s Office, and utility companies aim to create safe, convenient opportunities for proper medicine disposal through programs like DEA National Take Back Day. Disposing of your medicines at an official collection event will ensure that they will not be stolen from the garbage, will not enter our environment and eliminates the potential for misuse and overdoses at home.

Take Back Days are in April and October every year, and we typically hold them at the Detroit Police Stations. Visit our Facebook or Instagram page during those months to see where and when we will be collecting medicine.

Naloxone (or Narcan^TM) is a proven tool in the battle against drug misuse and overdose death. When too much of an opioid medication is taken, it can slow breathing to a dangerously low rate. When breathing slows too much, overdose death can occur. Naloxone can reverse this potentially fatal situation by allowing the person to breathe normally again temporarily (30-90 minutes). An individual can fall back into an overdose situation after that time if they have a long-acting medication or substance in their system. Naloxone is not a “cure” but is only intended to provide time for emergency medical services to arrive. Naloxone is not a dangerous medicine. However, proper training is required by law. Any time an overdose is suspected, first responders should be notified by calling 911 immediately and stay with the patient until first responders arrive. It is important to know that some patients may awake disoriented or agitated after receiving naloxone. This is a good sign, but calling 911 is still very important to help the person survive.