The Jefferson City Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its ninth opportunity in four years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
The drug Take Back program will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the police department, 401 Monroe St.
The DEA cannot accept liquids or needles or sharps, only pills or patches. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
According to authorities, Americans turned in 390 tons (more than 780,000 pounds) of prescription drugs last April at nearly 6,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 4,400 of its state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in its eight previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in more than 4.1 million pounds - more than 2,100 tons - of pills.
The DEA is in the process of approving new regulations that implement the Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an "ultimate user" (that is, a patient or their family member or pet owner) of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the attorney general to accept them.
The act also allows the attorney general to authorize long-term care facilities to dispose of their residents' controlled substances in certain instances.