LAYTON -- A first-time national effort to keep outdated and unused prescriptions out of the hands of youth by cleaning out medicine cabinets will take place in Davis and Weber counties this month.
"Prescription Drug Take Back Day" will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 25.
The free event will make available to Davis residents temporary pill drop box sites at the six Smith's Food & Drug Stores in the county, and at the Weber-Morgan County Health offices at 477 23rd St. in Ogden.
Although sites will be staffed by police, with the Drug Enforcement Administration providing the drop boxes to be used, officials said, the public can make their drops anonymously.
"It is just come in and drop them off," Layton Police Lt. Quinn Moyes said.
No names or data will be collected of those using the service.
One Davis organization supporting the event is Davis Behavioral Health Inc.
"Once a prescription is issued, pharmacists cannot take it back," said Debi Todd, prevention coordinator for the health organization.
"That is why we are working with the police department, who can legally take possession of these medications," Todd said of behavioral health, a member of the Davis County Health Coalition.
Permanent pill drop boxes bolted to the lobby floor of local law enforcement agencies are currently being utilized to prevent people from dumping unused or outdated medicine down their drains and toilets, as well as to clean out medicine cabinets some teens may turn to in an effort to obtain unauthorized prescription medicine, Moyes said.
Teens will use the home medicine cabinet to round up prescription pills they intentionally plan on either abusing, or selling to others who are looking to misuse the medicine, he said.
One in five teens report intentionally misusing someone else's prescription, Moyes said, with studies showing nearly half of those gaining possession of the drugs through friends or relatives by raiding the home medicine cabinet.
"It just gets them out of the hands of those who are not authorized to have them," he said.
Police later destroy the medicines in the waste incinerator at the Layton landfill.
Layton police in 2009 received 739 pounds of prescription medicines in its pill drop box, Moyes said. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 1 of this year, the station drop box has had 948 pounds of prescription medicines deposited in it, he said.
"It's quick. It's easy. It's safe for the environment. It's confidential. It's anonymous," Moyes said.
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