National Prescription Drug Take-back Day: Arlington's Collection Location

ARLINGTON, MA—National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is Saturday, and residents across the country will have the opportunity to dump old prescription drugs from their medicine cabinets.

The nationwide event helps to address the major public health crisis of prescription drug addiction. The opioid epidemic has taken center stage not only in Massachusetts but Middlesex County as well, and National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day hopes to address that problem and help residents safely dispose of old prescription drugs.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, many abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.

“Prescription drug abuse is a huge problem and this is a great opportunity for folks around the country to help reduce the threat,” DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a press release. "Please clean out your medicine cabinet and make your home safe from drug theft and abuse.”

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's most recent data which accounts for opioid-related overdose deaths from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2014, there were 12 opioid-related overdose deaths in Arlington during that time span. Five deaths were recorded in 2014, the most of any year during that span.

Take Back Day will occur Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at collection sites across the country. The Arlington Police Department is holding a collection at the police department located at 112 Mystic St.

Click here to find a location closest to you.