International Symposium on Safe Medicine Oct. 10-12
Contact: Len Kaye, (207) 262-7922; Kelly Alden, (207) 602-2137
ORONO — The annual International Symposium of Safe Medicine, cosponsored by the University of Maine Center on Aging, will bring together more than a hundred experts from around the nation and foreign countries involved with prescribing, administering and overseeing the use and abuse of prescription drugs.
The conference, at the Holiday Inn by the Bay and Convention Center in Portland, is part of a continuing effort to better and more wisely regulate the amount of drugs prescribed and reduce the volume of pharmaceuticals that fall into the wrong hands or pollute the environment through improper disposal.
Those efforts are paying off, according to Len Kaye, director of the Center on Aging, which co-hosts the Symposium each year and administers the statewide Safe Medicine Disposal for ME program. He says the volume of unused, unneeded or expired drugs being collected through the Center’s first-in-the nation drug mail-back program has been increasing significantly since introduced four years ago with grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The program is now funded into 2011 through the Department of Public Safety and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Since 2007, the program has collected well over a ton of unneeded medicines through the use of postage paid, mail-back envelopes available at some 150 participating pharmacies and community programs through the state.
The annual conference Oct. 10-12, which follows on the heals of the first national unwanted prescription drug take back event held on Saturday, Sept. 25, gathers medical, health, pharmaceutical and human service practitioners, educators, policymakers, law enforcement personnel, environmentalists, substance abuse professionals and others concerned with the human and environmental effects of prescription drugs. Three days of discussions, workshops and networking will introduce participants to the latest information and trends regarding prescription drug use, abuse and disposal, in addition to updates on how other states and policymakers are moving forward with the initiative.
In addition to the UMaine Center on Aging, the symposium is co-sponsored by the University of New England College of Pharmacy and the Husson University School of Pharmacy. The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) is supporting this year’s symposium.
Complete information, including a list and schedule of speakers, workshops and related conference events is available on the Maine Benzodiazepine Study Group website at http://benzos.une.edu/2010conference.htm.