On Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., the Urbana Police Division will be hosting a Drug Take Back event, as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Take Back Day, to help local citizens to dispose of their old or unused prescription medications from their households.
Police will be set up in front of the city parking lot in the 100 block of East Market Street, near the corner of Market and Locust streets, where officers will be available to accept medications for disposal from walk ups or from motorists who simply pull up to the site and hand their drugs for disposal over to a police officer working the event. The UPD is not accepting needles, ointments or liquids.
The medications collected from this event are logged into the property control system of the police division and are then later turned over to the DEA for proper disposal.
Unneeded prescription medication – those that are old, unwanted, or no longer needed – are a public safety issue, too often becoming a gateway to abuse and addiction. The majority of opioid addictions start with prescription pills found in medicine cabinets at home. Pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as street drugs when taken without a prescription or a doctor’s supervision. A majority of people who misuse a prescription medication obtained the medicine from a family member or friend.
Beyond Take Back Day, the Urbana Police Division provides a secure Drug Drop Box inside the East Market Street entrance to the Municipal Building for citizens to use throughout the year to regularly and safely dispose of unneeded medications.
