Eastern Idaho Public Health is hosting a drug takeback on Saturday for National Prescription Drug Takeback Day.
National Prescription Drug Takeback Day allows anyone to have a safe and secure way to dispose of unused, unneeded, or expired prescription medicine with multiple safe dropoff locations around Eastern Idaho.
“It’s a time for community members to come get rid of any unused or expired medications they may have in their home and a way to kind of protect the community by making sure those are out of the home and not misused,” said Mallory Johnson, a health education specialist senior with Eastern Idaho Public Health.
Safe and proper disposal methods are important for prescription drugs to prevent contamination or misuse.
“People used to flush their medications or just throw them in the trash can,” Johnson said. “If medications are being flushed, that then gets into the water treatment system. They have to try to process all of that out, so we don't want them just being flushed down the toilet.”
Eastern Idaho Public Health covers eight counties across Eastern Idaho. It was able to collect over 550 pounds of unneeded prescription medicine from the last drug takeback day in April from those counties, and over 5,800 pounds statewide.
Prescription Drug Takeback Day is made possible through the assistance of local law enforcement agencies.
“We're extremely grateful for our law enforcement partners who do this event,” Johnson said. “If it wasn't for their participation, we wouldn't be able to host these events because these events can't be hosted without law enforcement. So we're really grateful for those agencies.”
Eastern Idaho Public Health has five dropoff locations in Challis, Idaho Falls, Rigby, Rexburg, and St. Anthony.
National prescription drug takeback day is Saturday, Oct. 24th. You can find dropoff locations, times and more information on the Eastern Idaho Public Health website here.