Deterra Drug Deactivation System – a simple step in eliminating medications in your home

Parents work hard to keep their kids safe. Seatbelts are worn in the car, fences surround pools, and helmets are worn when playing sports and riding bikes. So, what about the medicines that are in your homes? Do you regularly clean out and monitor the medicine cabinet in your home?

Too often, unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs find their way into the wrong hands. Those hands might be your own child. That's dangerous and often tragic. National Drug Take Back Days aim to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription and non-prescription drugs while educating the public about the potential for abuse of medications. Our local law enforcement conducts our Drug Take Back Days and they are amazed at the participation by our community, but those collection days occur only a few times a year. We need to be vigilant in protecting our kids.

This year’s Drug Store Project held in April for our South Lake Tahoe sixth-grade youth provided a safety measure for the families of those youth. Thanks to the event sponsors and donors, community bags were provided to each of our youth. The contents of those bags came complete with a drug deactivation system which you can purchase on your own. The patented Deterra Drug Deactivation and Disposal System is a safe medication disposal pouch that can be used at home or in a clinical setting. It is the safest, most effective choice used to destroy and properly dispose of unused, unwanted, and expired medications with the simple addition of tap water. The main ingredient is activated carbon, which has been subjected to several independent studies that have produced test data verifying its effectiveness of chemical digestion, which renders the drug inactive and is even safe to dispose of in the household trash. It does not harm our environment!

The Drug Store Project team hopes to bring to our community’s attention that this is an inexpensive and viable way to keep our kids safe on a regular basis. We sent home 300 Deterra pouches and would like to gain feedback on their use. We have a two-question survey we hope you will complete for us here. We want to ensure this is a viable purchase for next year’s event!

There are several ways you can keep your family safer. Purchase Deterra pouches online or purchase a locking medication bag (also an item provided in the DSP community bag sent home) or plan on participating in the next National Drug Take Back Day on October 28, 2023. These are just a few simple steps everyone can take. And a word out to those grandparents, neighbors, and friends! If you have youth in your home at any time, safety measures are needed there as well. Let’s all do more to reduce access of all drugs when it comes to our youth.

- Lisa Huard
Drug Store Project Coordinator