You can dispose of unwanted or unused prescription drugs at one of at least a dozen metro area sites this weekend.
The DEA and local law enforcement agencies are hosting the annual prescription drug take-back day on Saturday. It’s an opportunity to dispose of prescription drugs safely and properly.
Kent Holm, Director of Environmental Services for Douglas County, says not doing so can contaminate the water supply.
“If you flush medications down the toilet, for example, that’s not a good idea because those materials are going to go through a sewage treatment facility, but the medications tend to stay in the water that’s then discharged in to creeks and rivers, and it can find its way in to the ground water. And so there’s still some contamination that occurs there.”
Holm says throwing prescription drugs in the trash creates a risk of those medications ending up in the wrong hands. A news release from the Nebraska Regional Poison Center says 105 people die in the U.S. every day due to a drug overdose.
More information and a list of metro area collection sites is available at www.dea.gov.