The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is reinstating Drug Take Back events! Participating local law enforcement will be coordinating a nationwide drug "take-back" day on September 26th from 10 am to 2 pm. This one-day event will provide residents with no cost anonymous collection of unwanted and expired medicines. To date, these events have collected close to 5,000,000 pounds of medication.

It's a great time to clean out your medicine cabinet! Protect our kids, families and environment by properly disposing of your unwanted and expired medicines. Medicines in the home are a leading cause of accidental poisoning and flushed or trashed medicines can end up polluting our waters. Rates of prescription drug abuse are alarmingly high - over half of teens abusing medicines get them from a family member or friend, including the home medicine cabinet, and often without their knowledge.

Take-back programs are the first choice for proper drug disposal. Law enforcement, poison centers, public health, and environmental professionals stand united in support of take-back programs, such as the DEA's take-back event on Saturday, September 26th, as the safest and most responsible way to dispose of unwanted and expired medicines to protect your family and to protect our waters.

The DEA's "Take-Back" initiative is one of four strategies under the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 to reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion in the United States. Additional strategies include education of health care providers, patients, parents and youth; establishing prescription drug monitoring programs in all 50 states; and increased enforcement to address illicit methods of prescription drug diversion.

For a collection site in your area, click the DEA link below, the click "Locate A Collection Site":
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html