Drug Take Back Day Set for April 27 in Bowie

Have a few bottles of expired pills rattling around in your medicine chest?

Before you toss out those old prescription drugs, take note—you can ditch those unused meds at the Bowie police station on April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) fifth drug take back program.

The process is as easy as walking in and dropping the pills in the box any time during the event, said Sgt. Bennie Henderson. The program takes pills or liquid drugs, but not needles, which will be incinerated and filtered so nothing will be aerosolized or become pollution. 

The drugs can be anything from expired Tylenol to left over antibiotics. While a few drugs down the toilet or in the trash may not seem like a big deal, it can have an impact on the environment and in the community. 

“We don’t want people going in the trash [to find drugs] and we want to make sure animals don’t get sick, there’s no contamination, or some kids find them,” Henderson said. “Until we started, it was hard to realize that this is actually really important.”

That’s because and estimated 130 pounds of drugs were collected by Bowie police during October's drug take back event, Henderson said. According to the DEA, over 2 million pounds of prescription drugs have been recovered in the four programs it has held in cooperation with state and tribal authorities nationwide.

”People in their early twenties all the way to seniors come. They may also bring their parents or deceased relatives drugs,” Henderson said. “Basically, we want to protect our kids and grandkids.”