TULSA, OK – [December 23, 2022] – With holiday gatherings in full swing, public health officials with the Tulsa Health Department’s substance abuse prevention program along with the Coalition Against Prescription and Substance Abuse of Tulsa (CAPSAT) encourage residents to prevent their prescription medications from falling into the wrong hands.
“It’s important to safely store your prescription medications at all times, but it’s especially important when you have guests in your home,” said THD Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator Matthew Condley. “Even when you know and trust your visitors, they could be struggling with an addiction that you are not aware of.”
When asked if they have ever used prescription drugs in order to get high, 60.2% of Tulsa County students who were surveyed reported they got the prescription drugs from their friends and 16.4% got them from the family medicine cabinet without permission, according to the 2020 Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment.
According to the 2022 Oklahoma Adult Prescription Drug Survey, 82% of Tulsa County adults surveyed do not secure their unused or unwanted prescription medications in their homes.
The Tulsa Health Department offers the following tips to prevent prescription drug abuse:
Monitor: Know what medications are in your home. Keep a regular inventory and avoid stockpiling medicines.
Secure: Keep your medicine secure from children and adolescents. Keep medicine under lock and key to prevent theft.
Dispose: Do not flush any medications. Bring unwanted or unused household medications and prescriptions to a local safe medication disposal site. Most police stations and pharmacies offer safe disposal.
For more information about the Tulsa Health Department’s substance abuse prevention program or the Coalition Against Prescription and Substance Abuse of Tulsa, please call 918-582-9355 or visit www.tulsa-health.org.
# # #
