CORBIN – The Declare Hope/UNITE Corbin Coalition will host the “Pill Dragon” and present a free showing of the documentary “An Appalachian Dawn” during its finale for the Accidental Dealer awareness campaign.
The program will be held Saturday, March 19, at the Tri-County Cineplex on Falls Road in Corbin.
From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. residents will be able to bring their unwanted, unused and out-dated medications for disposal by UNITE’s mobile incinerator during a “Clean Your Medicine Cabinet Out Day” event. At 11 a.m. residents can view the recently released documentary, “An Appalachian Dawn,” at the theater.
Both of these events are free of charge.
The Pill Dragon – sponsored by UNITE, Eastern Kentucky PRIDE and the Kentucky Army National Guard – is designed to keep medications from being disposed of in landfills or by flushing them down the toilet. Both methods have the potential to harm the environment.
Ridding the home of unneeded medications also reduces the potential for theft and experimentation with drugs.
Some studies have shown that 90 percent of teens that try prescription drugs for the first time turn to the family medicine cabinet or to a friend’s family for prescription and over-the-counter medications – making them an Accidental Dealer.
Aside from the fact that taking or giving away medicine that is not prescribed to you is illegal, even at small doses the potential exists for serious health effects – including death. This is especially worrisome in southern and eastern Kentucky, where the average age of first-time use is age 11.
Since January, members of the Declare Hope/UNITE Corbin coalition have worked to make citizens aware of this problem through presentations and media campaigns.
The documentary, released world-wide at the end of 2010, shows how Clay County was transformed into the “City of Hope” because citizens decided to take action against drug abuse and corruption.
For more information contact Dave Hampton at 606-521-3561 or 606-524-2147, or Tom Cline at 606-215-9939.