Dispose of your old prescription drugs Saturday

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office will host two prescription drug “Take Back” events Saturday, April 28, allowing residents to rid their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused or unwanted prescription drugs.

Officers from Lake County and the Drug Enforcement Administration will be at Beach Park Village Hall, 11270 W. Wadsworth Road, and Deer Park Village Hall, 23680 Cuba Road, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents can turn in their unwanted medications anonymously and free of charge.

“I see it as yet another way of helping to protect the youth of our community,” said Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran in a statement.

The Take Back events are designed to combat prescription drug abuse by preventing medicines from sitting in home cabinets and ending up in the wrong hands. The DEA also says disposing of unused medications in the trash or the toilet pose safety and health risks.

The initiative is part of the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act passed by Congress in 2010, which allows “ultimate users” of controlled medications to turn in the drugs to authorities with no questions asked.

According to the DEA, Take Back events held last October at more than 5,300 sites across the nation took in almost 200 tons of prescription drugs. Since the program started, the federal agency has taken in close to 500 tons with the help of almost 4,000 state and local law enforcement authorities.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office indicated it will hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.