On Saturday, October 29th, from 10:00 am to Noon, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Washington Police Department, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will provide the public the opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.

The free and anonymous prescription drug take-back event will be at the United Presbyterian Church parking lot in Washington. This will be part of the DEA’s 23rd nationwide event since National Drug Take Back Day’s inception over twelve years ago.

Shawn Ellingson, the Chief Deputy for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, talked with KCII about the importance of this event. “There’s a lot of prescription drugs out there, and sometimes people don’t take all of them, or for some reason, they are just left around the house. So it’s important to get those unused prescriptions out of the cabinet, so you don’t get confused or fall into the hands of young people that might not know what they are or they might want to experiment, so it’s best to turn those in so we can safely dispose of them.”

The site will only accept pills and patches and will not accept any kinds of liquids or needles; for privacy reasons, it is recommended that drugs be placed in a zip-lock bag, and the original bottle can be disposed of at home.