National Prescription Takeback Day Removes Millions of Pounds of Drugs

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us today is Frank Tarantino and he’s the Associate Chief of Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration and then Home Northeast Region. And well, Frank Tarantino, are we ever going to make America drug free?

0:18 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John. Yes, that’s our ultimate objective is to make the United States of America drug free, and specifically, we have an operation that our administrator has titled Sentinel Free America and that’s something that we dedicate our men and women to every single day. And protecting the United States is a utmost priority. But I want to talk

0:39 today John about some complimentary work that we do to our enforcement operations, and that’s the National Prescription Take Back Day that comes up twice a year. It’s coming up this Saturday, the twenty fifth of April, and there’s four thousand locations around the United States of America. And what it is, it’s an opportunity for them munity to really

1:03 partake in this effort to keep our safety and our security at the utmost in the mind of our young people in our community by taking their prescription drugs that are unwanted, unused to these locations to drop off for destruction.

1:22 And you know it, it’s a tremendous effort that we’ve had for the last sixteen years across the country, thirty different operations, John, And over the course of those thirty operations, we’ve had a total of over twenty million prescription medication twenty million pounds of prescription medication dropped off at these locations.

1:42 So that’s a tremendous effort and an incredible amount of prescription drugs that are again unwanted, unused. They’re taken off off the streets and potentially saved lives.

1:55 Speaker 1 And right now with all the boats of President Trump in our military has knocked out coming coming in from Venezuela, in all the precautions that that we’re taking with the Mexican’s cartels. Uh, give us the give us the overall a drug sales down. I mean, is it getting tougher to get drugs in the in the Northeast area?

2:27 Speaker 2 Well, John, you know, there’s there’s always this challenge in in drug law enforcement to stay ahead of the traffickers and their adaptability, their innovative and creative efforts to move their poison from Mexico and to the United States. And you know, every time we shut down a critical entry point, or we investigate and just disrupt an organization. They sort

2:54 of morph into a new area and develop a new technique. So we’re always trying to stay ahead of them, and they’re always you know, using new technology and new smuggling techniques. But I will tell you that we’re having a tremendous amount of success. As you know, overdose deaths are over twenty five percent down from last year. We’re at about

3:17 eighty four seventy six in comparison to one hundred and twelve three hundred and twenty three. So we’ve seen a tremendous amount of overdose death decline. And we’ve also seen the purity levels decline in the seizures that we have.

3:33 We see less and less sentinal powder on our city streets, but it’s still an effort every single day to go out and identify these organizations and to remove that poison. And you know, that’s something that I want to talk about next week when we when we talk about the cential Free America surge that’s ongoing, and we’ve had a

3:54 number of successful operations in New York City and throughout the Northeast that I think will illustrate this world.

4:01 Speaker 1 And then you know, I people have the right to dream, and that’s what I’m dreaming of, because you know, I worry about our kids, our grandkids in the future. And uh, are there some countries that are drug free? Uh?

4:18 Speaker 2 You know, I think that’s that they Uh you know, that would be the north star, that would be the ultimate objective for any country. And that’s certainly within within reason. Uh here in the United States. If we continue to work collaboratively, if we continue to put pressure on these drug cartels, if we continue to work as a whole government,

4:40 we will have that kind of success and we will eventually reach that point where we can save more lives and keep that poison, you know, out of our schools, out of our communities, because you’re right, don you know, our our youth are worth this effort. You know that the safety and security of this country depends on our

4:58 ability to protect our young people and protect our communities and to keep that poison and off the street, to keep the violence out of our inner cities. Like this, This is an effort that every single DEA agent, an intelligence analyst, diversion investigator, every single professional within the DEA is committed to every day.

5:20 Speaker 1 Well, I mean, hopefully it’s getting better and better and better. And I just I don’t understand the people that were opposing President Trump that knocking out all those boats again that we’ve talked about before. I mean, it just didn’t make any sense because make America safer. What else do you want to talk about on a Sunday morning to

5:44 all the American people?

5:46 Speaker 2 Well, John, I’d like for the American people to again understand the importance of the National Prescription take Back Day. And I want them to take this opportunity when they hear this conversation between you and me, and they hear other public services to have conversations with their young children, to have conversations with people that maybe are vulnerable to

6:07 substance use dependency. Because you know, the people that have conversations, we see at fifty percent decline or less likely to develop a substance use disorder. And what we find is only twenty two percent of the kids that we interview have had any conversations with an adult or with a hairgiver about the dangers surrounding iliced drug use or the

6:29 abuse of listed drugs. So we want the conversations to happen in the home. We believe that the community can help us. We believe a community problem is solved by the community, and we want the American people to help us, help them to keep America safe.

6:48 Speaker 1 I agree with here percent. Well, Frank Tarantino, thank you for everything you’ve done in the past and continue to do to help the American people and help our kids be and save lives and and and get that stuff off our streets. And God bless you, and God bless America.

7:08 Speaker 2 Thank you. John