New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, in collaboration with Civic Hall and Progressive Hacknight, is organizing a challenge to help improve the efficacy of The National Prescription Drugs Take Back Day. According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet. Take Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.
A day of brainstorming and collaboration on projects that would help to make information about safe prescription drug disposal more accessible, build awareness of the issue and the need to be a part of the solution, and encourage participation in Take Back Day. A selection of projects will continue to being developed by coders on the Take Back Day Hack on March 11.
A Progressive HackNight discussion on opioid abuse. We will cover the issues surrounding the opioid crisis, what’s been done to address the crisis in New York State under Attorney General Schneiderman’s leadership, and how can we as technologists support the recovery of those affected and assist in alleviating the crisis.
A full day of hacking dedicated to implementing and developing the technologies discussed in the last two events. The goal is to work on projects that will achieve the three key things that we’re aiming for to move Take Back Day efforts forward:
- Lowering The Barrier: Making it easier for people to drop off their unused medicines by helping them find collection sites and safer approaches to disposing of prescription drugs
- Outreach: Creating effective campaigns for people to learn more about Take Back Day and building tech to help notify and remind them as Take Back Day approaches
- Inform: Effectively educating the public about the opioid crisis and how best to help those victimized by it
Click here for information regarding Take Back Day registration and location.
Medicare Part D Opioid: Prescribing Mapping Tool
- Organized by county and by state
- Analyzes changes in prescribing rates as well as hot spots and outliers
Center for Disease Control and Prevention: U.S. Prescribing Rate Maps
- Organized by county or by state
New York State Opioid Quarterly Report
- Organized by county, by drug, and by outpatient emergency room or hospitalization
NYS Department of Health: Outpatient emergency department visits involving any opioid overdose aged 18-24
- Organized by county, by year, and by per capita rate
- Includes trend charts
NYS Department of Health: Outpatient emergency department visits involving any opioid overdose aged 25-44
- Organized by county, by year, and by per capita rate
- Includes trend charts
NYS Department of Health: Outpatient emergency department visits involving any opioid overdose aged 45-64
- Organized by county, by year, and by per capita rate
- Includes trend charts
Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Drug Overdose Death Data
- Analyzes rate of increase in opioid-related deaths per state
NYS Department of Health Vital Statistics: Opioid-Related Deaths by Age Group 2003-2015
- Sort by age, by gender, by race/ethnicity, and by region
NYS Department of Health Vital Statistics: Opioid-Related Deaths by County 2003-2015
- Sort by year, by county, and by number of deaths
NYS Department of Health: Overdose deaths involving any opioid aged 18-44
- Organized by county, by year, and by per capita rate
- Includes trend charts
NYS Department of Health: Overdose deaths involving any opioid aged 45-64
- Organized by county, by year, and by per capita rate
- Includes trend charts
Below are additional resources regarding National Take Back Day and how New York State and various companies are approaching the opioid epidemic.
DEA Diversion Control Division: Controlled Substance Public Disposal Locations
- Search by city/state or zip code
Surgeon General of the United States: Turn the Tide
- Read about the Surgeon General's approach to solving the opioid epidemic
Wisconsin Department of Justice: Dose of Reality
- Information on the program rolled out by the Attorney General of Wisconsin to prevent abuse of opioids and encourage Take Backs
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: Safe Medication Disposal for Households
- New York State pharmacies and law enforcement agencies interested in adding a medication drop box collection site to the map should contact [email protected]
- NYS Medication Drop Box Locations Map
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Where and How to Dispose of Unused Medicines
- Information on drug take back programs as well as home disposal procedures
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Increased drug availability is associated with increased use and overdose
- From 1991-2011 opioid prescriptions dispensed by U.S. pharmacies nearly tripled (from 76 million to 219 million)
- Opioid-related deaths also nearly tripled during this time
Walmart Launches Groundbreaking Disposal Solution to Aid in Fight Against Opioid Abuse and Misuse
- Patients refilling any new Class II opioid prescription at Walmart pharmacies will receive a free DisposeRx packet and opioid safety information brochure when picking up their prescription
- Find a Drop Box Location near you
Where can we find any research/data available/articles? We have data sources from the Attorney General's office in this public repo and can try and scrape other sites if we need to. DisposeMyMeds.org (community pharmacies) and Walgreens (maybe tied to CVS locations might be separate, needs to be looked into.) NYS Department of Conservation also has locations. DEA pop up sites list: takebackday.dea.gov