Drug Take-Back Day schedled for Saturday

Locations throughout the tricounty area will be available Saturday to accept expired prescription drugs.

WEST CHESTER » Chester County’s Department of Drug & Alcohol Services is spreading community awareness for National Prescription Drug Take Back Day set for Saturday, April 28.

Organized nationwide by the Drug Enforcement Administration, National Prescription Drug Take Back Day provides temporary local sites for safe, convenient and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while educating the public about the potential for abuse of medications.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, temporary prescription drug disposal sites will be located throughout Chester County, in locations including Phoenixville, Avondale, Coatesville, Downingtown and West Grove.

Prescription drug abuse is an ever-growing epidemic not only in Chester County, but across the nation. Commonly misused and abused prescription drugs fall into three different categories which include opioids, which are pain relievers and have a similar chemical make up as heroin; sedatives, which are used to treat anxiety and depression; and stimulants, which increase attention, energy, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing rate.

Prescription painkillers such as Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, and Morphine are classified as opioids. Opioid prescription drugs essentially have the same chemical make-up as heroin, which means they affect the brain and body the same, and the play a large role in the opioid and heroin use and overdose epidemic that our county, as well as our country, is currently facing.

Chester County remains committed to tackling the opioid and heroin epidemic through intensive prevention, education, treatment and law enforcement measures, coordinated its Overdose Prevention Task Force. To learn more, or to get involved, visit the newly created Overdose Prevention Task Force website, or download the Opioid Epidemic Community Tool Kit.

There are also 23 permanent collection boxes for prescription drugs located in Chester County. Find the list at chesco.org/2673/Medication-Drop-Off.