Lyon County NV – June 26, 2026
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office participates in the “National Drug Take Back Day” twice a year, and accepts unused prescription drugs at our Fernley substation. The Fernley substation has a drop box, which can be accessed during regular business hours. Please turn over your unused prescriptions for disposal. Leftover medications found in the home are the number one source for teens who abuse prescription medications.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office has presented on “How teens abuse medicine” throughout Lyon County. These presentations last approximately two hours. As your Sheriff, I feel community events such as these are significant and may help parents recognize signs that their teenager is abusing prescription drugs. I encourage as many people as possible to attend these events. If your organization is interested in hosting the presentation, please reach out to the Sheriff’s Office Administration at 775-463-6600.
In surveys across the country, most teenagers admit they can obtain several different mind-altering prescription pills with relative ease. The most common place where teenagers turn to find prescription medications is in their own homes. The leftover, or unused portions of prescriptions, are often left unattended and unmonitored in medicine cabinets, making it easy for teens to help themselves. According to the DEA, 17.8% of high school students took a prescription drug without a doctor’s prescription one or more times in the past 12 months.
The most common type of prescription medication abused is opioids. These are medications that relieve pain, such as Vicodin, OxyContin, or codeine. Abusing opioids can cause severe respiratory depression or death and can be highly addictive. Frequent abuse of prescription drugs activates the brain’s reward center, and a person begins to develop physical dependence and addiction. After long-term use, the body and brain build a tolerance to opioids. As a result, the desired effect of prescription drugs no longer satisfies the abuser’s needs, and they turn to more potent sources of opioids, such as fentanyl and heroin. It is no coincidence that heroin and synthetic heroin have made an extreme comeback from their previous reign as the drug of choice in the 1980s.
To suppress the influx of illegal drugs that plagues our communities, we need to be proactive at every level. Educating the community, especially parents of teenagers, on the dangers of abusing prescription drugs is just one step in the process.
I have attached a link to the DEA PDF “Prescription for Disaster How Teens Abuse Medicine”. As a parent myself, I strongly recommend that parents, Aunts, Uncles, and grandparents please take the time to read this pamphlet and have a face-to-face discussion with your teenagers regarding the dangers of abusing prescription medications. Their life, or the lives of others, may depend on it.
Respectfully,
Sheriff Brad Pope
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