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The Enterprise Connect Expo is the only place where all the leading suppliers can be found in one location. Special Offer: Use this link to register today and save $1000 off the onsite price for the 3 or 4 Day conference package or a FREE Expo Plus pass.

Hope to see you there!

A special thank you to the sponsors of this event goes out to the Administration on Aging. We also want to thank the Prince Georges County Police TRIAD Officers, and the staff from the Department of Family Services, for coming out and showing your support and helping with this event. Everyone had a wonderful time again this year. Thank you, one and all.

Four tons? I thought it was a misprint. Nearly 4 tons, that’s 7,820 pounds of unused, unwanted and outdated prescription pills that Maine residents dropped off in bins in parking lots throughout the state last week. Four tons! Can you even begin to visualize how many pills that involves?

If last week’s National Take-Back Day didn’t convince officials of the desperate need people have to rid themselves of prescription drug medication, then surely nothing will.

As a state we really outdid New Hampshire, where authorities collected only 2,479 pounds, and Vermont, where 1,127 pounds of pills were deposited. Connecticut collected 5,050 pounds and Rhode Island only 784 pounds. The only state in New England to dispose of more pills last Saturday than Maine was Massachusetts. There they collected 8,550 pounds, a measly 730 pounds more than Maine. Maine’s population is 1.3 million and Massachusetts’ is 6.5 million. In Virginia officials collected 5,000 pounds, and 4,000 pounds in Minnesota.

We clearly had a whole lot of extra medication hanging around in our medicine cabinets. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, U.S Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced just four days after National Take-Back Day that their legislation to allow the safe disposal of medications had passed Congress and was on its way to the president to be signed into law. The Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act will allow states and private agencies to institute responsible drug take-back programs. Federal law now prohibits such programs.

For a brief time the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency was administering a mail-back program, providing residents free, pre-addressed envelopes to mail their unwanted prescription medication to the MDEA office. Funding dried up, however, and the program was phased out. Maine is one of 17 states where deaths by drug overdose outnumber deaths by motor vehicle accidents. Prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing drug problem in the country. Around the country surveys show that three out of five teenagers say it is easy to steal prescription medications from their parents.

People, even in the most rural parts of our state, are scared their homes may be invaded by drug seekers. Home invasions were almost nonexistent just 10 years ago. Today they are not uncommon.

People are warned not to flush extra medications down the toilet, for they contaminate the groundwater. They are told not to throw them out because they end up in landfills and eventually leach into the soil. They are not allowed to take them to their local police department, and the local pharmacy won’t take them either. Until now, neither the state nor the federal government has provided a safe solution to the problem. Passage of the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act is a good first step, but there is no money attached. The preferred method of disposing of prescription medication is through incineration. If local governments are going to be responsible for collecting unused medication, then local governments most likely will be responsible for their storage and their incineration costs. Most police departments have secure evidence rooms where the drugs could be stored. There are ways to offset incineration fees. Drug forfeiture money could be used to offset the costs to communities. In one Texas community the police department built its own incinerator to dispose of the drugs, and in yet another, a local pet crematorium provides the service free of charge.

Four tons of pills in Maine in one day. Houston, I think we have a problem.

This event will be FREE and open to the public. Please join them on Saturday, Oct 9th 11a.m.-3p.m. at the Daymar Institute located at 1860 Wilma Rudolph Blvd Clarksville, TN 37040

There will be Complimentary Food & Drinks (while supplies last).  To mention a few events that will take place during this event will be The Clothesline Project which features t-shirts made by victims of domestic and/or sexual violence,  there will also be child finger-printing so please bring your children.

Exhibits and displays will be furnished by the community action agencies. For more information about this event contact Peggy Macias at (931) 648-0611.

Most citizens are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are increasing at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away – both potential safety and health hazards.

The National Prescription Drug Take-Back campaign provides a way for the public to dispose of their unwanted prescription drugs in a safe, legal, and environmentally sound way. This event will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 10:00am to 2:00pm at the following locations: Wiscasset – at the Lincoln County Communications Center, Jefferson – at the Fire Station, Damariscotta – at Miles Memorial Hospital-Main Entrance, Boothbay Harbor – at the Town Office.

This event is free and anonymous.  There will be no questions asked or identification required.  People are asked to please remove any identifying labels from bottles or packages. Any liquid products should remain sealed in their original containers. Please ensure the cap is sealed tightly before depositing.

INTRA-VENOUS SOLUTIONS, INJECTIBLES AND SYRINGES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED DUE TO POTENTIAL HAZARDS.

This initiative is restricted to prescription and over the counter type medications only.  Illicit substances such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin are not part of this initiative and should not be brought to the collection points.

For more information on this event, please contact Detective Robert McFetridge of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 207-882-7332 rmcfetridge@co.lincoln.me.us or your local police department.

Donations can be dropped off at the Durham Center for Senior Life, 406 Rigsbee Ave, Durham, NC through November 23, 2010.

For those interested in making a donation toward the purchase of these items, you may send a check to the address listed above, and we will happily shop for you.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:  Juanita Allen Nelson, Director of Social Services, Durham Center for Senior Life @ (919) 688-8247 ext. 105  jnelson@dcslnc.org

Every 9 seconds, a woman is battered. Hear stories of survival and honor those who were silenced.

For more information please visit www.padv.org / www.facebook.com/padvatlanta  /  www.twitter.com/padvatlanta

 “Ample parking is available”

Please be advised: This event will be held RAIN or SHINE. Light refreshments will be served from 6:00 p.m. until 6:20 p.m.

For more information please visit www.padv.org / www.facebook.com/padvatlanta  /  www.twitter.com/padvatlanta

The Senior Circus Day Celebration is sponsored by the Prince George’s County Department of Family Services Administration on Aging. This event is free to Prince Georges County residents 60 years and older. Please Join us at Watkins Regional Park located at; 301 Watkins Park Drive Upper Marlboro, MD on Friday September 17, 2010. Kickoff is at 10:00 a.m. and it will end at 2:00 p.m.

 Activities will include lunch, fitness walks, line dancing, music and voter registration and much more. There will be vendors and exhibitors on location as well. For more information about this event you may contact the Senior Nutrition Program at 301-265-8475. Please come out and help make this event a huge success.