(Radio Iowa/KJAN) – Saturday is the second National Drug Take Back Day. The head of the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy, Suzie Sher, encourages everyone to take part. “You can bring back any unused or unneeded medication to this event, any expired prescriptions or extra medications you have in your medicine cabinet at home, it’s a great time to clean out those cabinets and have a safe and anonymous way to properly dispose of those medications,” she says. Sher says there are two national take back days every spring and fall. “It’s a proper, safe way to dispose of those medications. It keeps them out of the hands of people who might either intentionally or unintentionally get a hold of those medications,” Sher. She says more than five-thousand (5,077) pounds of unneeded medicine was turned in at the first event in April.

Sher says if you miss the event this Saturday, there are other ways to properly dispose of the medication. “Iowa has 400 or so permanent drug take back sites. They’re in every county, in pharmacies, in law enforcement centers. You can go to the D-P-S website. We’ve got a map,” she says. Sher says the permanent sites offer a good option year-round. “And those are anonymous, you can go safely dispose of your medications, and they’ll take care of it from there,” she says.

A reminder too, that the Atlantic Elks Lodge and Atlantic Police Department are teaming up this year for “Drug Take Back Day.” The event will take place Saturday, Oct 26th from 9 am to 11 am at the Atlantic Elks Lodge, with a drive through drop off in front of the Elks lodge at 411 Walnut St next to the police station.  Nationwide, Saturday’s National Prescription Drug Take Back events will operate from 10:00 a-m until 2:00 p-m at designated sites across Iowa. You can also get rid of vaping devices and e-cigarettes as long as the batteries are removed from the devices.

For more information or to find a site near you, visit: https://www.dea.gov/takebackday