By SALINA POST
The Saline County Sheriff's Office will join hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country Saturday for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's 22nd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
According to Saline County Sheriff's Lieutenant Sean Kochanowski, sheriff's office personnel will be joined by representatives from Interim Healthcare and Hospice for the collection, which is scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Salina Senior Center, 245 N. Ninth Street.
The bi-annual event offers free, anonymous disposal of unneeded medications.
“Disposing of unneeded medications can help prevent drugs from being misused,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Overdose deaths continue to hit tragic record highs. I encourage everyone to dispose of unneeded prescription medications now.”
For more than a decade, DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day has helped Americans easily rid their homes of unneeded medications—those that are old, unwanted, or no longer needed—that too often become a gateway to addiction. Working in close partnership with local law enforcement, Take Back Day has removed more than 15 million pounds of medication from circulation since its inception. These efforts are directly in line with DEA’s priority to combat the overdose epidemic in the United States.
Drug overdose deaths are up 16 percent in the last year, claiming more than 290 lives every day, the DEA noted. According to a report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a majority of people who misused a prescription medication obtained the medicine from a family member or friend.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the United States, more than 106,000 people died as the result of a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending November 2021, marking the most drug-related deaths ever recorded, with opioid-related deaths accounting for 75 percent of all overdose deaths.
If you can't make it to the collection event on Saturday, you can drop off unneeded medications in lobby of the sheriff's office during the office's regular business hours. Additionally, you can drop them off on the weekends at the Saline County Jail visitation window.