National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is September 26

drugs in drinking waterThe United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is hosting its 10th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on September 26th from 10am-2pm local time in every state except Pennsylvania and Delaware, where the event took place on September 12. Sites will be set up throughout communities nationwide so local residents can return their unwanted, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs for safe disposal.

Collection sites in every local community can be found by going to www.dea.gov . This site will be continuously updated with new take-back locations.

While National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day addresses the vital public safety and public health issue of prescription drug abuse, it also addresses the recently recognized problem of prescription medications found in our nation’s water supply. Many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicines, often flushing them down the toilet, which causes a significant public health hazard.

In the previous nine Take-Back events nationwide from 2010-2014, 4,823,251 pounds, or 2,411 tons of drugs were collected.