Clear your medicine cabinets of unwanted prescriptions with drug drop-off

Saturday is your chance to rid your home of unused, expired and unwanted prescription drugs.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will be hosting 19 drop-off sites throughout San Diego County, as well as one in Imperial County, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The locations — including police and sheriff’s stations, San Diego State University, the Vista courthouse and military bases — can be found at takebackday.dea.gov.

Accepted forms of prescription drugs include tablets, capsules, patches, and other solids. DEA will also accept vaping devices and cartridges as long as lithium batteries are removed.

The drop-off sites will not accept liquids (including intravenous solutions), syringes and other sharps, nor illicit drugs.

The drop-offs can be made anonymously, no questions asked. The drugs are later destroyed.

The event is aimed at preventing easy access to common drugs of abuse that can often be found in medicine cabinets, especially opioids.

According to a report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a majority of people who misused a prescription medication obtained it from a family member or friend.

“The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic — drug overdoses are up 30 percent over the last year alone and taking more than 250 lives every day,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement. “The majority of opioid addictions in America start with prescription pills found in medicine cabinets at home.

“What’s worse, criminal drug networks are exploiting the opioid crisis by making and falsely marketing deadly, fake pills as legitimate prescriptions, which are now flooding U.S. communities,” she added. The counterfeit pills being sold on the street are often laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and can kill in small doses.

Besides posing a danger for abuse, prescription drugs that are improperly disposed of, such as being flushed down the toilet, can cause environmental damage.

The last Take Back event, in April, netted more than 7,850 pounds of unwanted prescriptions in San Diego and Imperial counties.