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Here's How You Can Safely Get Rid of Those Old Prescription Drugs

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Kentucky State Police officers are teaming up with the federal government to collect unused and outdated prescription medications.

Saturday is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, and drop-off locations will be set up at locations across the commonwealth.

State Police spokesman Josh Brashears says it’s opportunity to get rid of medications that could be accidentally ingested by children, stolen, or misused.

“Any kind of solid dosage units—pills or liquid cough syrup, anything like that, we can accept and safely dispose of that.”

He adds that the “take back” effort is a much better alternative to flushing old medicine down the toilet, or throwing it in the trash.

“You can contaminate a water stream or animals can get into it—a dog might get into your trash. This is the responsible thing to do, to dispose of it this way so that everybody knows that it’s safely taken care of.”

All items collected during the drug take-back day will be handed over to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency for proper disposal. Last year, nearly 9,800 pounds of old pharmaceutical products were collected at 50 sites across Kentucky.

This year’s drop-off sites include the KSP posts in Bowling Green, Columbia, Elizabethtown, Henderson, and Nortonville. You can see the state police site locations here.

Collection activities will take place from 10am to 2pm Saturday.

Kevin is the News Director at WKU Public Radio. He has been with the station since 1999, and was previously the Assistant News Director, and also served as local host of Morning Edition.
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