DEA urges Coloradans to use year-round collection sites for unneeded medications
The Drug Enforcement Administration is encouraging Coloradans to make "Every Day Take Back Day" for unneeded and unwanted medications. They hope everyone uses the year-round collection sites. There are more than 100 in the Denver metro area.
The DEA has worked with state and local law enforcement to host the National Prescription Drug Take Back Days each year to help get rid of unwanted and unneeded medications. Last year, the DEA collected more than 1.2 million pounds of unneeded medications at more than 4,600 sites nationwide.
"We've done drug take back days for more than a decade, but now there's no need to wait for one or two designated days a year," said DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge David Olesky in a statement. "In 2023 alone, our Division collected nearly 44,000 pounds of unwanted or unneeded medications across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana."
The safe disposal receptacles give Coloradans an easy, no-cost opportunity to anonymously dispose of medications that are unwanted, unneeded and expired.
According to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, most people who use a prescription medication for a nonmedical purpose get that medication from a family member or friend. Experts believe that removing the medication from the home can help prevent those situations.
"DEA has worked closely with the registrant community to dramatically increase the number of permanent disposal sites accessible to Americans. As a result, members of the public can now go to any one of 17,000 pharmacies across the nation to dispose of unused prescription medications any day of the year," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a statement. "I encourage everyone to take advantage of these collection sites and make Every Day Take Back Day."