Ditch Your Old Prescription Pills At Somerville's Drug Take Back

SOMERVILLE, MA — The Somerville Police Department is preparing to collect your unwanted prescription drugs. Drug Take Back Day will return to Somerville April 27 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. To participate, take your unwanted pills from your cabinets and remove them from the packaging.

Put the pills, patches, liquids or ointments in a ziplock bag that doesn't have any personal information on it. You can drop it off at the Public Safety Building, 220 Washington St., or the Somerville Fire Department, 6 Newbury St. — it is completely anonymous.

Needles/syringes, medical devices (IV bags, home infusion items), thermometers, and medical instruments will NOT be accepted.

Medicines that sit in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion and misuse. Rates of prescription drug misuse in the U.S are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.

The DEA launched its prescription drug take back program when both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration advised the public that flushing these drugs down the toilet or throwing them in the trash posed potential safety and health hazards.

Last April, during the Take Back Day, the DEA New England Field Division participated in the drug take back day and, over the course of four hours, 88,182 pounds or 44 tons of expired, unused, unwanted prescription drugs were collected at 580 collection sites throughout New England.