Here’s what you should know about National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in Utah

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — In an effort to mitigate the opioid crisis, many Utah law enforcement agencies on Saturday participated in the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Organized by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the event offers anonymous disposal of unneeded medications at more than 4,000 local drop-off locations nationwide.

“We’re taking medications that are unused from patients, so they can bring (them) here and give them to our law enforcement officers so it is out of their cupboard and off of the street and disposed of in the proper way,” said Scott Mitchell, director of pharmacy at St. Marks Hospital.

In the Beehive State, law enforcement agencies partnered with hospitals and pharmacies to provide drop-off locations all throughout the state.

The turnout at St. Marks, Mitchell said — which is participating in the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day for the fourth year in a row — has been positive.

“We’ve had, really, a good steady flow of traffic through. Lots of people coming in and we’ve received a lot of medications that could be abused and are now out off the streets and out of people’s medicine cabinets so that their family members are safer and the community is safer as a whole,” Mitchell said.

Every MountainStar hospital in Utah is participating in the event with the exception of Brigham City Hospital, said Brittany Glas, spokeswoman for MountainStar Hospitals.

According to the DEA, opioid misuse remains at epidemic levels in the United States. A report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed that a majority of people who misused a prescription medication obtained the medicine from a family member or friend.

Statistics like this are one of the reasons take-back events are so crucial, Mitchell said.

“The opioid crisis has been going on for quite some time,” Mitchell said. “From 1999 to 2020, there was almost 1 million overdose deaths in the United States and 75% of those come from opioids.”

Events like the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day protect individuals, their family members and the community as a whole.

Mitchell said that if folks aren’t able to make it to a take-back event today, most police departments have drop-off boxes for the safe disposal of prescription drugs.

“This is a great opportunity for everyone to look in their medicine cabinets, see what they have there. Whether it’s expired or they’re just not using it anymore, bring it down here so that we can get it taken care of and it’s not something that they have to worry about,” Mitchell said.

People looking for a drop-off site for Saturday that may be closer to where they live can find a complete list of locations here.

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