It’s again time for Jacksonville area residents to do a fall cleaning of their medicine cabinets.
The Jacksonville Police Department is hosting the fall Drug Take Back Day this Saturday. The event is held twice a year in partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and gives people the opportunity to safely dispose of prescription medications they have lingering at home.
Jacksonville Police Deputy Chief Rodney Cox says the Drug Take Back Day event is free and completely anonymous. He says the main goal is to get these prescriptions disposed of safely. “It’s highly important to get these unused and old drugs off the streets because prescription medicine is a problem with overdosing and just usage by people that they are not prescribed to.”
Cox says the DEA also wants to keep old prescription medicines from being flushed into water systems or being put into landfills to keep the environment clean and the drinking water safe.
This is the 12th year and 23rd Drug Take Back Day held by the Jacksonville Police Department which hosts the event in April and October each year. Cox says it is a safe and easy process to dispose of old prescriptions.
“You just come in the police department doors there, bring in your unused or old medications and we will have somebody there that will collect it for you. We cannot take needles or liquids but any other pills we can take.
This is all anonymous so there is no signing or anything like that. You just drop it off and we put it in our collection stuff and that’s it.”
Cox says if anyone can’t make it into the event this Saturday, the Jacksonville Police Department will take old prescriptions year-round, day or night. “We’ve been doing it for quite a few years now. But yet the Jacksonville Police Department also has a box inside of our lobby that we collect them in year-round, and then just give it to the DEA twice a year when we do the big take back.
We will take it anytime and 24/7. If it’s after hours they can hit the call button at the door and talk to our communications center and they will buzz them in so they can drop them off. It’s just sitting inside of our lobby door there, no questions asked. Again as long as it’s not liquids or needles we’re good to go.”
Prescription patches are also accepted along with pills. The Fall DEA Drug Take Back Day is this Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Police Department located at 200 West Douglas Avenue.
For more information about the disposal of prescription drugs or the Take Back Day event, log on to DEATakeBack.com