Why you should participate in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day

DEA encourages people to return unused medications on Oct. 24

DETROIT – Prescription medications can be dangerous and even deadly -- and they’re probably just sitting in your medicine cabinet.

The Drug Enforcement Administration laid out reasons for all of us to participate in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 24.

According to the DEA, the majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained through family or friends, often from their own medicine cabinet.

If you have unused prescriptions sitting in your medicine cabinet, the DEA wants them back.

“So they don’t end up in the streets with our kids,” said Kathy Frederico.

Frederico, the Detroit Program Manager for the DEA, is encouraging residents to look up your local dropbox location in order to find where you can take your unused pills.

“My suggestion is put it in a plastic bag and take it to the drop site and just put it in the box," Frederico said.

The DEA is accepting anything from medicines to vitamins that you don’t need. They are not accepting vaping cartridges.

It’s all anonymous. You won’t be asked to show any form of ID and no questions will be asked.

In the past, National Prescription Drug Take Back Day has been very successful.

“Last year in Michigan, we took back about 30,000 pounds of unwanted medications," Frederico said.

If you don’t plan on giving back your medication, the DEA recommends keeping it somewhere where it can’t be taken or stolen from your own home.

More information can be found on the official National Prescription Drug Take Back Day website here.


About the Authors:

You can watch Kim on the morning newscast weekdays from 4:30 to 7 a.m., and frequently doing reports on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Dane is a producer and media enthusiast. He previously worked freelance video production and writing jobs in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts. Dane graduated from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.