Public Safety

San Diego Law Enforcement Wants Your Old Presciption Drugs

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published September 21, 2010 at 11:30 AM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

San Diego County law enforcement authorities are asking people to clean out their medicine cabinets to help prevent prescription drug abuse.

It's part of the first ever nationwide campaign to destroy unneeded prescription drugs.

People can drop off prescription drugs, no questions asked, at 26 sites around San Diego County and four in Imperial County this Saturday.

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Ralph Partridge heads the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in San Diego. He says the agency is after expired drugs, and any drugs left over.

"What we're finding out is that about 70 percent of the folks say they get the drugs from their family and friends. Way they get those is by taking them from people's homes when they're visiting. They're taking them from their own homes, their parents. And sometimes it is burglaries once people know they have prescription drugs inside the residences," said Partridge.

He says some prescription painkillers have a street value of up to $80 per pill.

The San Diego Medical Examiner's office says prescription drug deaths are the rise.

You can find a drop off locations at www.dea.gov.

Public Safety

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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