Since 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration has collected unwanted prescription drugs.
Prescription Drug Takeback Day began in 2011 after prescription opioids flooded the country.
Kentucky saw a 50 percent increase in the number of drug overdose deaths from September 2019 through September 2020 compared to the 12-month period before. The commonwealth recorded one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s one reason, Kevin McWilliams, a spokesman for the DEA in Louisville, said people should consider dropping off medications this Saturday.
“Addiction is a disease of isolation and quarantine certainly contributed a great deal to that,” McWilliams said. “So now more than ever it’s important to safely dispose of medications that are no longer needed and potentially get them out of the hands of someone who may have used them.
Medication tablets, capsules and patches may be dropped off at many local police departments on Saturday, April 24 from 10 until 2.
Unwanted medications can also be disposed of year-round at some pharmacies and police departments.
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