To help find policy solutions to our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic, CADCA, former Member of Congress Mary Bono and the Trust for America’s Health, launched a Collaborative for Effective Prescription Opioid Policies (CEPOP), about a year ago. Today, CADCA was invited by CEPOP to be part of a briefing on Capitol Hill about the various ways that the Rx opioid abuse epidemic is being addressed around the nation.

Speakers included Dr. Anita Gupta, Associate Professor, Drexel University College of Medicine, Brian Meshkin, President and CEO, Proove Biosciences, John Donahue, Chairman and CEO, Axial Healthcare and CADCA’s Chairman and CEO General Arthur T. Dean spoke about safe disposal.

“Because they are uniquely positioned within their communities, our coalitions were among the first to raise concerns about a growing opiate crisis. At first, CADCA coalitions were dealing with this problem in pockets of the country – in Appalachia, for example. Now, of course, we face a nationwide epidemic,” General Dean told the group. 

General Dean also informed the group about CADCA’s new project with support from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals to explore safe disposal options and public attitudes in four Florida counties.

The communities of practice project began in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Take Back Day on Sept. 26.

“We are working with four Drug-Free Communities grantees in Hillsborough, Collier, Seminole and Manatee counties. Our goal is to spark local dialogue by providing 40,000 drug deactivation pouches to the community and surveying people in those communities about their relationships between their medications and safe storage and disposal,” Gen. Dean said.

Drug deactivation systems that meet the DEA rule’s standard for disposal that drugs are rendered “non-retrievable” by the disposal method are supported by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The pouches, manufactured by Verde, are a new addition to the 2015 National Drug Control Strategy. The drug pouches can neutralize and render harmless up to 90 pills and a person can dispose of this pouch in their trash because the package is biodegradable. 

Gen. Dean then reminded the group that “It is important to note that this technology sprung from a 2013 NIDA Small Business Innovation Research contract, an example of a public – private collaboration.”

SEE ALSO:

CADCA’s free, online course: Applying the Strategic Prevention Framework to Prescription Drug Abuse

CADCA’s online toolkit: preventrxabuse.org