FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WOAY) – On Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Fayette County Sheriff’s 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.
Bring your pills for disposal to the Fayetteville office at 100 Court Street. (Sites cannot accept liquids, needles or sharps, only pills or patches.) The service is free and anonymous; no questions asked.
This month’s event was DEA’s 19th nationwide event since its inception 10 years ago.
Last fall, Americans turned in nearly 883,000 pounds of prescription drugs at nearly 6,300 sites operated by the DEA and almost 5,000 state and local law enforcement partners. Along with its law enforcement partners, DEA has now collected nearly 6,350 tons of expired, unused, and unwanted prescription medications since the inception of the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Initiative in 2010.
To keep everyone safe, collection sites will follow local COVID-19 guidelines and regulations.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.
In addition to DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, there are many other ways to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs every day, including the 11,000 authorized collectors available all year long. For more information, visit DEA’s year-round collection site locator.
The FDA also provides information on how to dispose of prescription drugs properly. More information is available here: https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/where-and-how-dispose-unused-medicine
