On Saturday, October 26, the Drug Enforcement Agency is hosting prescription pill take back events around Idaho. They’re intended to help stem the problem of addiction.
Think of just a single pill – tiny and almost weightless. Now, imagine how many it would take to add up to 7,500 pounds. That’s how much prescription medication was turned in by Idaho residents last October, U.S. Attorney Bart Davis says.
On Saturday, 35 collection sites will be set up throughout the Gem State for people to turn in their unused prescription pills. Davis says there’s nothing to fear if you participate.
“People need to understand this is anonymous,” says Davis. “They can come in; they can drop it off. People aren’t looking to inspect or to make arrests.”
Pills left in easily accessible places are susceptible to being stolen or misused – even by family or friends. Rather than disposing of old medicine, Davis himself says he found pills stashed away at his house.
“I had a bunch of hydrocodone pills sitting on a shelf,” Davis says. “They’d been there for a while. They were the remnants from several root canals that I’d had over the years, and I didn’t need them.”
So he took them to a safe collection site and got rid of them. Davis encourages people to check their medicine cabinets and see if they have any old prescriptions lying around they don’t need.
Saturday’s take back events around the state will run from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. Specific locations can be found at takebackday.dea.gov.
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