National Take Back Drugs Day on Saturday, October 26 is an opportunity to dispose of prescription medications in an environmentally safe way. Medications can be dropped off from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fairview Fire Station #1, Lowery Freshman Center, and the Presbyterian Hospital Allen.

Approximately 50 percent of people in the U.S. have used at least one prescription drug in the last month.  Out of that number, one-third of those medicines have also gone unused.

When not disposed of correctly, these no-longer-needed and often expired prescription drugs create big problems. Studies have shown that flushing or throwing away prescription medications are hazardous to the environment, with traces of antibiotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, prescription hormones, blood pressure and cholesterol medications increasingly found in drinking water. In addition, accidental overdose from medications killed one person every 19 minutes as of 2007.