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NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG TAKE BACK DAY: A national day to ask all Americans to safely dispose of unneeded medication.

On National Take Back Day (Saturday, April 28, 2018), the Drug Enforcement Administration, in partnership with Federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement, businesses, medical offices, federal agencies, and first responders will host events to collect and safely dispose of unneeded medication. National Take Back Day happens twice per year.

Each Take Back Day, thousands of pounds of prescription drugs are returned, helping to prevent incidents of drug abuse and misuse across the nation. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, results from the October 2017 National Take Back Day show: 4,274 law enforcement partners participated; there were 5,321 collection sites; and 912,305 pounds of prescription drugs were collected, more than the weight of three Boeing 757 airplanes.

On Take Back Day, unneeded medication can be dropped off at any one of thousands of disposal drop off sites. A tool to locate your nearest collection site is available at: https://takebackday.dea.gov

Year-round you can drop off unneeded prescription drugs at participating Walgreens, CVS’s or by ordering a free safe disposal mail-in envelopes from the National Safety Council at NSC.org/TakeBack: Some retail pharmacies, such as Walgreens and Walmart, offer drug disposal programs on site. A number of other retail pharmacies, such as Costco, CVS, or Rite Aid, sell postage-paid envelopes for customers to mail any prescriptions. Free safe disposal mail-in envelopes are offered by the National Safety Council.



RISKS OF KEEPING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: From ingesting out-of-date prescription drugs to abuse and misuse of prescriptions, keeping unneeded prescriptions poses a number of risks.