HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – The 26th National Drug Take Back Day is Saturday and many pharmacies and other locations across the Tri-Cities are participating.
The event is held by the Drug Enforcement Administration who partners with local law enforcement agencies across the county to put on the day.
From 10 am to 2 pm, locations nationwide will be accepting unused or expired prescription or over-the-counter medications in the form of pills, creams, or liquids less than four ounces. Needles and syringes are not accepted.
Hastings Police Captain Jason Haase said leaving unused medication lying around could cause a deep rooted issue.
“A parent or grandparent of yours that had a hip replacement or things like that, they got along really well so they didn’t need to have those medications in there,” Haase said. “But they may have a grandson or a friend of someone who comes and visits and rummages through and finds those prescription medications and abuses those.”
On the previous take back day in October 2023, there were 4,675 collection sites and 300 tons were collected.
DEA Diversion Program Manager, Dan McCormick, said the program grows each time they put it on, “It just continues to get bigger and bigger, nationwide almost 9,000 tons have been destroyed over our course of doing this.” McCormick said.
The DEA reminds people to remove any personal information off labels of bottles.
Drop off locations near you can be found here
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