Media cover Drug Take Back Day

The Portland Press Herald, MPBN radio, and the Sun Chronicle previewed Drug Take Back Day, which will take place Saturday, April 28, 2012. UNE's College of Pharmacy and Coastal Health Communities Coalition are among the many partners involved in the state and national program.

The stories explain that in three past events, Maine collected more drugs per capita than any other state. The collection efforts have taken on special urgency in Maine, which has one of the nation's highest rates of addiction to prescription painkillers. Hundreds of Maine babies are born each year into opiate withdrawal, and more Mainers are killed by prescription drug overdoses than traffic accidents. William Paterson, substance abuse prevention project director at UNE's CHCC, was interviewed for the MPBN story.