Local law enforcement is again joining in on a national event aimed at getting unused prescription drugs off the street.
This Saturday, the Jacksonville Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration are teaming up to host the DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Jacksonville Police Deputy Chief Rodney Cox says the event will be held at the Jacksonville Police Department. “So just come into our lobby and one of our employees will be there to collect any unwanted, old or expired medicines.
We do not take syringes or liquid medicines or anything like that. But your pills, we can collect those and basically, we turn them over to the DEA to be destroyed.”
Officials at the event will collect tablets, capsules, patches, and other solid forms of prescription drugs. Cox says there are no questions asked at the event and everything is totally anonymous.
Unused prescription drugs can also be dropped off in the Jacksonville Police Department lobby 24 hours a day. Area residents can also use the drop-off located in the South Jacksonville Police Department lobby on Sequoia Drive during business hours.
Cox says the Jacksonville Police Department will also take any illicit and illegal drugs with no questions asked any time of the year to help keep them off the street.
“We will take those, we destroy those more or less ourselves. They [DEA] won’t accept those but we will destroy those as we do the illicit drugs we college as evidence. We’re not going to turn them away.
People don’t think about it, they think about the illicit drugs, but they forget about the prescription medicines where they are just as bad and misused just as bad as the illicit drugs.”
The National Drug Take Back Day is this Saturday, November 28th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the lobby of the Jacksonville Police Department located at 200 West Douglas Avenue.