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Nevadans can rid their homes this weekend of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs...10th National Prescription Drug Take-Back, a partnership between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Nevada Attorney General's Office,is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at four Las Vegas Valley locations:

1. Metro's northwest area command station, 9850 W. Cheyenne Ave.
2. Metro's eastern area command, 6975 W. Windmill Parkway
3. North Las Vegas Police Department's northwest area command station, 3755 W. Washburn Road
4. Anthem Senior Center lobby, 2450 Hampton Road in Henderson

For years,…GlaxoSmithKline was illegally persuading doctors to prescribe paroxetine (Paxil),…as an antidepressant for children and teenagers…citing…Study 329…research...claiming to show that Paxil is "well tolerated and effective" for kids…A…new analysis of the raw data behind Study 329, published in BMJ (British Medical Journal), suggests that the original conclusions were…wrong. Not only is Paxil ineffective, working no better than placebo, but it can actually cause serious side effects, including self-injury and suicide…New York State Attorney General…sued GSK,...pleaded guilty...paying out $3 billion in fines. Drug companies are pushing to market more drugs for off-label uses…

DEA…announces the sentencing of Edward Jack Sayegh, M.D. to four years in prison, after the…doctor pleaded guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy, fraud, and multiple drug diversion charges following a long-term investigation into his medical practice, Arizona Family Medicine… Sayegh was personally abusing narcotics, sold prescriptions to a select group of patients and billing insurances for services never rendered.

…. proponents of e-prescribing have achieved their goal of electronic prescribing of controlled substances becoming legal nationwide, as Vermont has become the last holdout to change its rules… years of protests from law enforcement over concerns that drug diversion would increase, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in 2010,legalized e-prescribing of Schedule II-V drugs,

September 26th,..local and federal agencies will once again partner together to sponsor the Prescription Drug Round Up event in Washoe County. Since the first event in the fall of 2009, the Round Ups in Washoe County have collected nearly 1.5 million prescription pills. More than 210,000 of those pills were in categories that are commonly diverted and abused, such as painkillers, depressants and stimulants.

Round Up Locations September 26th 10:00am – 2:00pm:

• Raleys - 930 Tahoe Blvd, Incline Village
• Raleys - 18144 Wedge Parkway, Reno
• Walgreens - 10370 N. McCarran Blvd, Reno
• Save Mart– 4995 Kietzke Lane, Reno
• CVS - 680 N. McCarran Blvd, Sparks
• Save Mart- 9750 Pyramid Hwy, Sparks

The drug drop boxes are available during regular business hours at the following locations:

• Reno Police Department – 455 E. 2nd Street, Reno
• Sparks Police Department – 1701 East Prater Way, Sparks
• Washoe County Sheriff’s Office – 911 Parr Blvd., Reno

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner (New Zealand) has found a man wrongly took a chemotherapy drug (cyclophosphamide) for three weeks because a pharmacy dispensed the wrong medication…The 79-year old man was supposed to be taking an immuno-suppressant (cyclosporine), following a kidney transplant…He took the chemotherapy drug for about three weeks before asking the pharmacist why his tablets had changed…The pharmacist checked the records and found a technician had filled the prescription, but that he had signed it off... he did nothing further, he didn't complete an incident form, he didn't alert the owner of the pharmacy…the pharmacist was also remiss for not offering any counselling to the patient…pharmacist has been ordered to apologise to the man in writing, and further action could follow.

Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division…announced today the indictment and arrest of Dr. Gerald Surya, an internist and senior aviation medical examiner with offices at JFK International Airport... sold prescriptions for oxycodone, a powerful opioid painkiller, and other controlled substances to a select group of "patients" in exchange for cash...allegedly wrote prescriptions in the names of individuals with no legitimate medical need for the controlled substances..

South African Police shut down three counterfeit drug making plants last weekend in an INTERPOL-co-ordinated operation that seized 150 tonnes of fake medicines…involved thousands of police and customs officials in Angola, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe who raided markets, shops, pharmacies and warehouses in addition to the three illicit plants…seized products were illicit and counterfeit antibiotics, painkillers, erectile dysfunction medicines, birth control and anti-malarial medication...Authorities arrested 550 people…also closed 20 illegal pharmacies where the fake drugs were sold.

All non-expired drugs produced for sterile use by Alabama-based compounder Medistat RX have been recalled due to potential contamination, the FDA is warning pharmacists… recalled products were distributed nationwide between Nov. 1, 2014, and Sept. 3, 2015… FDA investigators and Alabama inspectors observed significant deficiencies that raised concerns about the compounder’s ability to assure the sterility of the drugs it produced.

DEA officials today announced a nationwide series of enforcement actions targeting every level of the global underground trade of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs,…manufactured and trafficked from underground labs in China…Operation Cyber Juice …resulted in the arrest of over 90 individuals, the seizure of 16 underground steroid labs, approximately 134,000 steroid dosage units, 636 kilograms of raw steroid powder, 8,200 liters of raw steroid injectable liquid, and over $2 million in U.S. currency and assets.