Local police departments collecting unwanted prescription medicines
PEORIA, Ill. -- TRICARE enrollees are being offered an easy way to dispose of their expired and unwanted prescription drugs Saturday as part of the Drug Enforcement Agency's National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.
Locations will collect medicine from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in order prevent abuse and environmental contamination. Local sites include the Bartonville, Peoria, Pekin and Peoria Heights Police Departments, and anyone may contribute.
"The presence of unused, unwanted and expired prescription drugs in American homes is a real public safety and health issue," said Dr. George Jones, chief of the Defense Health Agency Pharmacy Operation Division. "Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem, and getting these old drugs out of the home medicine cabinet reduces the chance of abuse or accidental misuse."
Anyone may turn in prescription and over-the-counter tablets and capsules, but intravenous solutions, injectable medications, needles and illegal drugs cannot be accepted.
Americans disposed of approximately 617,000 pounds of prescription medications at more than 5,500 national sites last year.
To find a collection site near you, please visit www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/.
(Information was used from a Defense Health Agency news article.)