EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Prescription drugs sometimes find their way into the wrong hands and the consequences can be deadly.
The second National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is on Saturday, Oct. 25, with communities around Rhode Island and Massachusetts holding their own events to try to combat this problem.
Leftover medications can be misused or accidentally ingested by children. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there were an estimated 36,564 emergency department visits among children under 5 years old for unsupervised medication exposures in 2020.
WATCH: How to protect children from accidental medicine exposure
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) started Take Back Day to encourage more people to safely and anonymously dispose of expired or unwanted prescription drugs, no questions asked.
Richard Leclerc, the director of the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, urged Rhode Islanders to take part in the event.
“With so many locations available, it is easy to participate,” Leclerc said in a press release. “More importantly, it helps to protect family and friends by making sure that these medications do not harm others.”
During last year’s Take Back Day, the DEA said there were 4,644 sites that collected 629,953 pounds of unwanted medications.
Collection sites will be open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. this Saturday.
You can find a collection site near you here or by using the interactive map below.
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