Franklin County residents got a free, anonymous way to clear out their medicine cabinets on Saturday, October 24, as SWACO and local law enforcement partners hosted collection sites across the county for National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. The sites were open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and accepted unused or expired dry prescription pills, giving families, seniors and other residents a safe alternative to leaving old medication in a drawer, throwing it in the trash or flushing it away.
Collection communities listed for this fall’s event included Bexley, Blendon Township, Columbus, Dublin, Grove City, Hilliard, New Albany, Perry Township, Reynoldsburg, Sharon Township, Upper Arlington and Worthington, along with select Kroger locations. SWACO said the event is open to any resident of Franklin County, and residents could enter their ZIP code online to find the collection site closest to them. The Franklin County effort is part of a national program run with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration each April and October.
Saturday marked the DEA’s 31st National Prescription Drug Take Back Day since the program began in 2010. Nationally, the DEA said more than 4,400 collection sites were operating with more than 4,300 law enforcement partners, accepting tablets, capsules, patches and sealed liquid medications. Syringes, sharps and illicit drugs were not accepted at the sites.
Organizers say the reason for the twice-a-year push is what sits, forgotten, in homes. SWACO noted that keeping unneeded medicine in the house can harm children, pets, teens and adults if it is accidentally ingested or misused, and the DEA has long pointed to home medicine cabinets — and medication shared by family members and friends — as a common source of abused prescription drugs. Proper disposal, SWACO said, also protects the environment and helps keep medications out of local waterways.
The national record behind the event is substantial. In a statement for this fall’s Take Back Day, DEA Administrator Terry Cole said the program has helped Americans remove more than twenty million pounds of unneeded medications from their homes since 2010, adding that preventing potentially addictive medications from falling into the wrong hands is a small step that can save lives. At the most recent Take Back Day in April, the DEA and its partners collected more than 642,000 pounds of unwanted medication nationwide.
For Central Ohio households, the impact on Saturday was simple: a short drive, no cost and no questions. Instead of guessing whether pills could go in the trash — where they can be retrieved — or down a drain, residents could hand them to law enforcement partners for safe disposal and leave with a safer medicine cabinet.
Anyone who missed Saturday’s four-hour window is not out of options. SWACO partners with communities across Franklin County to maintain permanent prescription drug collection sites that are available year-round, and empty prescription bottles can also be dropped off throughout the year at SWACO’s Recycling Convenience Center at 2566 Jackson Pike. The DEA also maintains an online collection-site locator, and the next national Take-Back Day will return in April.