Prescription drug abuse is a big problem, not only nationally but in the Texarkana area as well.
Those addicted to prescription drugs often buy them on the street at prices that far exceed retail cost. This is especially true now that hydrocodone, one of the most medically used and subsequently abused drugs, has been reclassified as a Schedule II Narcotic and subject to stricter regulation. Hydrocodone tablets can fetch up to $20 each on the street. Another popular drug, oxycodone, can command double that.
For some users, though, the source of their next fix is much closer to home-a relative or neighbor's medicine cabinet.
Those with a legitimate need and prescription for drugs are sometimes targeted by thieves. Desperate addicts also help themselves to leftover prescriptions that sit in the medicine cabinet after the legal need has passed.
Sometimes the thief uses the drugs. In some cases part of the bounty is sold to other dealers or directly to other users.
It's a big problem.
Many area residents have old prescription drugs at home. We don't think much about them, but they are there. In days gone by we might have flush them into the sewer system. But that's not advisable these days. We know that the drugs could harm the environment. Nor is it wise to simply toss them into the trash.
But there is a solution.
Today, the Bi-State Narcotics Task Force will hold the area's 10th annual "Drug Take Back Day."
If you have prescriptions drugs that you no longer need you can bring them to the Texarkana, Ark., School District Administration Building on Jefferson Avenue between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Officers will accept the drugs with no questions asked.
They will also take synthetic marijuana, which has been linked to brain damage and even death.
When we think of drug abuse, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and the like typically come to mind. But the truth is more people abuse prescription drugs than all those drugs combined according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And prescription drug overdoses are responsible for more deaths than all illegal drugs combined.
But people still think it's safer to get high with "real" drugs than with "street" drugs.
So getting the drugs off the street and out of abusers' hands is an important mission. While no one is saying Saturday's collection of unneeded prescriptions and synthetic marijuana will solve the problem, it is a positive step in the right direction.