title: North Carolina's Operation Medicine Drop: Results From One of the Nation's Largest Drug Disposal Programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2013, a total of 1,085 North Carolina residents died due to unintentional poisoning; 91% of these deaths were attributed to medications or drugs (over-the-counter, prescription, or illicit). Proper disposal of unused, unneeded, and/or expired medications is an essential part of preventing these unintentional deaths, as well as averting the other adverse consequences of these drugs on the environment and population health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Operation Medicine Drop is a medication take-back program coordinated by Safe Kids North Carolina, a county-level, coalition-based injury prevention organization. The Operation Medicine Drop program and event registration system were used to review and validate the number of events, the counties where the events were held, and the number of unit doses (pills) collected from March 2010 to June 2014. SAS version 9.4 was used to generate basic counts and frequencies of events and doses, and ArcGIS version 10.0 was used to create the map.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From March 2010 to June 2014, Operation Medicine Drop held 1,395 events with 245 different participating law enforcement agencies in 91 counties in North Carolina, and it collected 69.6 million unit doses of medication. More than 60 local Safe Kids North Carolina community coalitions had participated as of June 2014. Every year, Operation Medicine Drop has witnessed increases in events, participating agencies, participating counties, and the number of doses collected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Operation Medicine Drop is an excellent example of a successful and ongoing collaboration to improve public health. Medication take-back programs may play an important role in preventing future overdose deaths in North Carolina.
authors.affiliation: chronic disease epidemiologist, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Division of Population Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; chronic disease epidemiologist, Division of Public Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Eleanor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.affiliation: epidemiologist, Division of Public Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, North Carolina Scott.Proescholdbell@dhhs.nc.gov.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Proescholdbell
authors.affiliation: program manager, Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Nidhi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sachdeva
authors.affiliation: graduate research assistant, Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Apostolos A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alexandridis
authors.affiliation: associate professor, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Lewis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Margolis
authors.affiliation: deputy director, Office of State Fire Marshal, North Carolina Department of Insurance, Raleigh, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ransdell
mesh_terms: D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D059065:Medication Reconciliation; D009657:North Carolina