National Prescription Drug Take Back Day – 4/22/23

This shop has been compensated by Inmar Intelligence and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Hi friends! Did you guys know that this Saturday (4/22/23), is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day? Well, in honor of this recognized day, I wanted to share an awesome resource I just recently learned about.

But first, let me ask you a question, what do you normally do with your prescription drugs once you no longer need them? Do you flush them down the toilet? Throw them away in the trash? Pour them down the drain? If so, you’re not alone. Many people unfortunately do so, because they don’t know of any other option. And more often than not, the end result is damage to our environment, drug diversion, or the drugs being abused by others.

Here are some alarming facts, but I think they need to be shared. 192 Americans die every day from a drug overdose.18 million people in the U.S. over the age of 12 have misused medications at least once in the past year. 83% of people who misuse prescription pain relievers including opioids get them from a friend or relative. 46 Million Americans are exposed to trace amounts of medications in their drinking water…

This is so sad… And it’s our reality.

So in an effort to assist in reducing these issues and bringing awareness to the massive opioid crisis that is plaguing many families, the Safe Medication Disposal Program created a Consumer Drug Take-Back program that provides consumers with a safe option to discard their unused or outdated prescription medications in secure kiosks located across the US.

These kiosks can currently be found in California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts and New York. The color of the kiosks differ per state, but they can all be found at your local grocer near the pharmacy. And some locations even accept pet medication as well.

Simply enter your zip code here and you will find a list of safe drug take-back kiosks in your area.

I’m actually really glad I found out about these kiosks because I was prescribed medication after my car accident and haven’t known what to do with it now that I’m no longer taking them. So it’s just been sitting in my kitchen, with the rest of our cold and flu medicines, which honestly probably isn’t the best idea for many reasons. It’s simply too easily accessible, but I also knew simply throwing them in the trash wasn’t good and that it was terrible for the environment.

So once I found out about this kiosk, I immediately made my way to the Marin County kiosk, located in Novato, CA and the process was super easy! The kiosk was inside of Safeway right next to the pharmacy and I just dropped my prescription in the box. From there, they are able to safely dispose of it and you are no longer risking someone else potentially taking it, selling it etc or harming the environment!

So since tomorrow is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, if you have any prescription drugs lying around that you’re no longer using and you’re in an area that participates in this program, I highly recommend heading to one of the kiosks to properly dispose of them!

Thank you in advance for helping to protect your family and our communities!