Chief Kirk Lane recently attended a National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws Conference in Washington, DC on Nov. 4th and 5th.  Also attending the conference with Chief Lane was the Arkansas State Drug Director, Fran Flener.

    He was invited to participate in the new working group whose focus will be prescription drug return, reuse, and safe disposal.  They will specifically focus on pharmaceutical take-back programs, such as Operation Medicine Cabinet I and II which were held here in Saline County. 

    Over the course of the two day conference they will explore the various aspects of prescription take back programs and different approaches to establishing one.  They will look at the implications for law enforcement, funding obstacles, environmental and safe disposal issues, and discussion and evaluation of existing take-back programs.  Community action-orientated efforts to establish new programs will also be explored. 

    The ultimate goal for this conference is to determine the feasibility of developing model take-back laws and to examine current legislative actions.  The initial first step for the group will be to draft a set of components common to currently operating successful prescription drug take back programs from throughout the country.