Police want your extra prescription drugs again

Both the Indiana and Kentucky state police posts will be participating in the nationwide Drug Take Day effort on Saturday.

Drug Enforcement Agency officials will collect at the Evansville National Guard Armory, while the Warrick County Sheriff's Office will host a drop-off at the CVS near the intersection of Indiana 66 and Indiana 261.

Medication can be dropped off at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at all locations. The armory location will start an hour earlier but still runs until 2 p.m.

Sgt. Todd Ringle, a spokesman for the Indiana State Police, said that last take-back event collected about 300 pounds of drugs at the state police post in Evansville.

"In our area, prescription drugs are being abused daily. We encourage people to look in their medicine cabinets and when they come across those drugs that are no longer using or that are expired, (Saturday) is a great way to collect those," he said. "Bring them to us, and we will dispose of them."

Ringle said using someone else's prescription pills can be harmful.

"We always point out that a lot of teens and young adults start to experiment with prescription drugs because they think because it is a prescription drug, it is not a dangerous drug. By all means, that's not true," Ringle said.

Addiction to prescription opioid pills has been blamed on the nationwide resurgence of heroin use over the last few years. A majority of current heroin users report having gotten hooked on pain pills, according to health officials. Vanderburgh County saw 29 deaths blamed on overdoses of heroin or its close cousin Fentanyl last year, a four-fold increase from 2015.

Medication in both pill and liquid form will be accepted on Saturday. No syringes or needles will be taken. Ringle said no names are taken during drop-offs.

For those who can't bring their medication on Saturday, both the Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office on Morton Street in Evansville and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office Command Post on U.S. 41 are permanent drop off sites and will dispose of medication for free during regular business hours. Unwanted drugs can be brought to the Gibson County Sheriff's Office in Princeton for disposal anytime during regular business hours.

A list of other Saturday drop off sites can be found at www.dea.gov, which is the website for the Drug Enforcement Agency.