Safely dispose of prescription drugs at sites across Arizona on Saturday
Oct 23, 2018, 2:30 PM | Updated: 2:37 pm
PHOENIX – The misuse of prescription drugs is a major public health issue, with the bathroom medicine cabinet too often becoming a gateway to addiction and overdose deaths.
That’s why the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency started National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Arizonans can hand over unused or outdated prescription drugs to law enforcement officials, with no questions asked, at dozens of locations across the state.
There are more than 80 sites in Arizona, about half of them in the Phoenix area. The DEA website has a search tool for finding the location nearest you.
“The nonmedical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in America,” Donna Rossi, Buckeye Police Department spokeswoman, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday.
“According to the DEA, the majority of teenagers abusing prescription drugs get them from family, friends and the home medicine cabinet.”
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that more than 6 million Americans misused prescription drugs in 2016.
National Take Back Day is held twice a year.
At the last one in April, more than 12,000 pounds of drugs were collected at 80 sites in Arizona.
The national totals were nearly a million pounds at more than 5,800 locations.
Through 15 National Take Back Days, Arizonans have turned in more than 144,000 pounds of drugs, and the U.S. total is close to 10 million pounds.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Ashley Flood contributed to this report.
