Get Rid of Your Unwanted Prescriptions Drugs This Saturday

It's spring and we are all doing a little spring cleaning. Now is the time to clear out that medicine cabinet of all the unused and unwanted prescription drugs you might have in there. But how to you get rid of them? Coming up this Saturday, April 24th it is DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The DEA’s Take Back Day events provide an opportunity for Americans to prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths. It also keeps prescription drugs out of our landfills and sewer systems (don't flush unwanted medicine!).

Unused prescription drugs often find their way into the wrong hands. That's dangerous and often tragic. Now is the time to clean out your medicine cabinets and turn in -- safely and anonymously -- any unwanted or unneeded prescription drugs.

It is amazing the amount of drugs collected at these events. At the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in October 2020, there were 4,587 collection sites and combined they took in 985,392 pounds of unwanted prescription drugs. That's 492.7 tons of drugs that were kept out of our landfills, sewers, and were safely disposed of! (*Collection results may include materials other than prescription drugs.)

Many area police and sheriff departments work together at various collection sites around the area to make it easy to find a drop off site. The event starts at 10 am on Saturday, April 24th. The event will wrap up at 2 pm. To find a drop off site near you, check out the https://takebackday.dea.gov/ website.

If this Saturday doesn't work for you, there are sites that will take back prescription drugs at other times of the year -- including many pharmacies. You can find that information, along with the closest drop off site here.