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THE OCMULGEE DRUG TASK FORCE ALONG WITH THE
MILLEDGEVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE BALDWIN COUNTY
SHERIFF’S OFFICE ARE TAKING BACK UNWANTED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
October 26, 2013 - Milledgeville, Georgia
– On October 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Baldwin County
Sheriff’s Office, the Milledgeville Police Department and
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the
public its seventh opportunity in three years to prevent
pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially
dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.
Bring your medications for disposal the Milledgeville Police
Department at 125 West McIntosh Street or at the Baldwin
County Sheriff’s Office located at 119 Old Monticello Road,
Milledgeville, Georgia. The service is free and
anonymous, no questions asked.
Last April, Americans turned in 371 tons
(over 742,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at over 5,800
sites operated by DEA and its thousands of state and local
law enforcement partners. In its six previous Take
Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 2.8 million
pounds – more than 1,400 tons – of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public
safety and public health issue. Medicines that
languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to
diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription
drug abuse in the U. S. are alarmingly high, 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,
Americans are now advised that their usual methods for
disposing of unused medicines – flushing them down the
toilet or throwing them in the trash – both pose potential
safety and health hazards.
DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that
implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of
2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an
“ultimate user” (that is, a patient or pet or their family
member or owner) of controlled substance medicines to
dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by
the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows
the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities
to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in
certain instances.
Regional Drug Enforcement Offices
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, having statewide
original jurisdiction in drug enforcement investigations, is
committed to providing the highest quality drug enforcement
services for the citizens of Georgia through the
contributions of highly skilled employees, state of the art
equipment and a well defined strategy. Our continued focus
is to combine GBI resources with existing federal, state and
local resources in a cooperative effort to identify and
investigate individuals or drug trafficking organizations
which are importing, manufacturing and distributing illegal
drugs in Georgia.
Currently, the GBI has drug enforcement offices in Canton,
Milledgeville, Savannah, Carrollton, Thomson and Sylvester.
The Thomson and Sylvester offices are designated as dual
purpose offices; meaning that they respond to general
requests for assistance from local law enforcement, as well
having responsibility for the GBI’s drug enforcement effort
within a designated area of Georgia’s 159 counties.
The GBI, in partnership with the Criminal Justice
Coordinating Council and local law enforcement, currently
supports 11 statewide Multi-jurisdictional Drug Task Forces
(MJDTF). Under this concept the GBI assigns a supervisor (at
the rank of Assistant Special Agent in Charge) to serve as
the Task Force Commander. That supervisor provides
supervisory and operational oversight.
In many geographical areas of Georgia, these MJDTFs provide
the only substantial drug investigative response in that
area.
The GBI also has agents assigned fulltime to the
following task force:
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike
Force
The OCDETF Strike Force is designed to investigate and
prosecute the highest-level members of international drug
cartels that have operations in metro Atlanta and throughout
the United States. To this end, the Strike Force focuses on
national investigations that are coordinated with OCDETF
Strike Forces located in other cities and investigators
located throughout the United States and the world. |
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