Students from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy partnered with Generation Rx to host Medication Take Back Day on October 2.
The event, co-hosted by the UNC School of Dentistry and the UNC Hospital Police, collected expired or unused prescription drugs from the Chapel Hill community in order to combat drug abuse.
Maurice Horton, Pharm.D., a third-year Ph.D. student at the School, said the accumulation of unused prescriptions can lead to drug abuse and threaten the safety of children and pets.
“This event is just an opportunity for patients and citizens of Chapel Hill to bring their medication back, clean out their medicine cabinet and create a safer home for themselves,” Horton said in a Daily Tar Heel interview.
Horton reached out to Generation Rx, an organization that provides resources to combat the misuse of prescription drugs, in order to partner for the event. Horton, the former president of AAPS at the School, said in the interview that the event showcased the ways pharmacists can preserve community health.
“This is a place where pharmacists can engage with community and expand their scope of practice,” Horton said. “We’re not just pushing out the pills, we’re actually caring about what goes on after they are put in the home and if they’re not taken.”