Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is urging Alabamians to participate in the DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, October 29.
The 23rd DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day has approximately 60 registered collection sites throughout Alabama scheduled to be available from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 29. Unused prescription drugs, especially narcotics, are a temptation for persons who are either addicted to drugs or who are seeking a drug experience. Many young people get into drugs or worsen a drug habit through the illicit use of drugs from their parents or grandparents or a neighbor’s medicine cabinet.
“With an increasing amount of unused and expired prescription drugs in many homes, it is more important than ever to dispose of them safely and properly,” said AG Marshall. “When old prescription drugs are left in our homes, children may be poisoned or fall prey to drug abuse and addiction. Your old medications can also be a lure to criminals looking for drugs to sell. On Saturday, October 29, please take the opportunity to safely remove these hazards by bringing prescription drugs that are out of date or no longer needed to collection sites across Alabama for safe and proper disposal.”
The program is sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to combat the abuse or misuse of potentially dangerous medicines that have expired or are no longer needed. Law enforcement officers will be present at sites throughout Alabama to receive unused prescription drugs for safe and proper disposal.
The first Take Back event in Alabama was held in September 2010. Since then, the amount of drugs collected continues to increase. Throughout all of Alabama’s previous DEA National Prescription Drug Take-Back events combined, a total of about 109,671 pounds of unwanted, unused, or expired drugs have been removed and disposed of safely.
Law enforcement agencies and interested community partners such as pharmacies, schools, and civic groups are working together to provide local drop-off sites throughout Alabama.
If you do not find your area listed on the DEA website, please check with your local law enforcement officials to see if they may be participating in a Take Back event in your community.
Deliveries of drugs to DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day events are confidential, with no personal information collected and no questions asked. Participants are encouraged to remove labels or black out information beforehand.
This is much safer environmentally than pouring unused drugs down the sink. It is important that medicines be disposed of in a proper manner rather than simply being thrown into the trash, flushed away, or poured down drains, as they could contaminate water supplies and cause an environmental hazard.
The DEA wrote that the drug overdose epidemic in the United States is a clear and present public health, public safety, and national security threat. DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day reflects DEA’s commitment to Americans’ safety and health, encouraging the public to remove unneeded medications from their homes as a measure of preventing medication misuse and opioid addiction from ever starting.
108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021 – the most in history.
The DEA believes that we can make our communities safer and healthier, and we can do this by reducing overdoses and overdose deaths.
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