Two times a year, the Drug Enforcement Administration hosts National Prescription Drug Take Back Your Meds Days where citizens can bring their expired and unwanted prescription medications to designated locations to be safely destroyed. These events are a great start, but we must continue to find ways to address the problem of drugs in the wrong hands, starting in the medicine cabinets of our homes.

Unused or outdated medicines can be misused and cause serious harm to people, pets and wildlife. Many of these unused medicines end up in the wrong hands – people who might have been prescribed them for legitimate reasons but didn’t take them as directed, those who may be taking more than they need or who abuse them. The risk of this type of misuse increases when medicines are kept in unsecured, unlocked homes and accessible to children.

Take Back Your Meds Campaign: A Nationwide Effort to Combat Drug Abuse

Keeping these medicines around, or improperly disposing of them, is not only illegal, but it can also put others at risk. Keeping unnecessary or outdated medicines in your home is like leaving your wallet in the car; someone else could steal it, or it could be used by those who want to abuse it.

In addition to the biannual drug take-back day, there are other local and year-round medication disposal options. Some pharmacies offer safe medication disposal units, and DEA Authorized Collectors have drop-off boxes available to the public all year. For instance, CVS Pharmacy(r) provides in-store disposal kiosks at thousands of store locations to help remove unwanted medicines from the homes and communities. Find a location near you.