Garden therapy is my favorite prescription

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, April 28th

I treat my body the same way that I treat my gardens. When it comes to health, my first line of defense is always a natural one, and I only turn to chemical solutions as a last resort.

But every now and then, I’ve accepted a prescription medicine for something because it just seemed so easy at the time. I have filled prescriptions for pain killers when I’ve had minor medical procedures. And more than once, I’ve accepted something from a doctor who thought some symptom I had was related to stress.

And then I realized that I didn’t need the drugs after all. The anticipated pain never came or A day in my garden took away all of my stress.

Accepting unnecessary prescriptions may seem like an easy thing to do if you have health insurance that covers the cost for you, but it causes a major problem: how to dispose of those medicines safely.

Some people decide to keep the medication just in case they may need it sometime in the future. Who knows when some mysterious, unbearable pain may occur, right? Unfortunately, this attitude can prove disastrous or even fatal.

• Each day, approximately, 2,500 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet.
• The number of young children being poisoned after inadvertently ingesting over-the-counter or prescription medications has risen dramatically in recent years. A study by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found that visits to U.S. emergency departments due to medication poisonings of children five and under rose 28 per cent between 2001 and 2008 — and 95 per cent were due to kids getting into the drugs on their own.
• Pets, too, are in danger of being poisoned by human medications. In 2007, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center received 89,000 calls related to pets ingesting over-the-counter and prescription medications.

Flushing medications down the toilet or disposing of them improperly can cause the same kinds of environmental problems as disposing of unwanted lawn chemicals inappropriately.

If you have any surplus medication laying around your house, I urge you to take advantage of the DEA's Take-Back Initiative.

This Saturday, April 28th, 2012, from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day to provide a venue for persons who want to dispose of expired, unwanted and unused over the counter or prescription drugs.

Americans that participated in the DEA’s third National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on October 29, 2011, turned in more than 377,086 pounds (188.5 tons) of unwanted or expired medications for safe and proper disposal (helping to keep those drugs out of the hands of our children and out of our waterways)

To find a location to turn in your unwanted medication, visit the DEA website and input your zip code.

And next time you feel a little stress starting to run you ragged, why not try a little Zen Gardening. It always works wonders for me!