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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has set aside April 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., for the public to rid their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.

The sites cannot accept liquids, needles, or sharps. Only pills or patches will be accepted. This service is free and anonymous, with no questions asked. . Participating in the next DEA Take Back Day on April 24 simply means cleaning out your medicine cabinet or anywhere you keep unused, unwanted or expired medications and dropping them off at your nearest collection site.

To keep everyone safe, collection sites will follow CDC COVID-19 guidelines and regulations.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses because of these drugs. In the United States, 85,500 people died of a drug overdose in just one year (August 2019-August 2020). This is the largest number of drug overdoses on record in the United States within a one-year period and a 27 percent increase in deaths year over year.

Synthetic opioids, such as illicit fentanyl, are the primary reason for the increase in overdose deaths.

This is the DEA’s 20th nationwide event since its inception 11 years ago. Last fall, Americans turned in nearly 883,000 pounds of prescription drugs at nearly 6,200 sites operated by the DEA and almost 5,000 from its state and local law enforcement partners.

The DEA and its partners have collected nearly 6,350 tons of expired, unused and unwanted prescription medications since the inception of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Initiative in 2010.

In addition to DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, there are many other ways to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs every day, including the 11,000 authorized collectors that are available all year long.

For more information, visit DEA’s year-round collection site locator. To learn more about the event and find a collection site log onto: www.takebackday@dea.gov, or call 800-882-9539.

The FDA also provides information on how to properly dispose of prescription drugs. More information is available here: www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/where-and-how-dispose-unused-medicines.

For more information about the disposal of prescription drugs or about the April 24 Take Back day event, go to DEA Drug Take Back event.