October 27, 2022  |  10:46 am

This Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office will participate in a one-day collaborative effort with the Drug Enforcement Administration to remove unused and expired medications from homes and medicine cabinets.

Bring your unused prescription drugs for disposal to the STPSO Administrative Building, 300 Brownswitch Road, in Slidell or the STPSO Law Enforcement Complex at 2070 Collins Blvd., in Covington.

Tablets, capsules, patches, and other solid forms of prescription drugs will be accepted. Vaping devices and cartridges can also be dropped off at the locations, provided lithium batteries are removed. However, liquids (including intravenous solutions), syringes and other sharps, and illegal drugs will not be accepted.

The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. Any identifying information should be removed from containers before being deposited.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows year after year that the majority of misused and abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including someone else’s medication being stolen from a home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.

In addition to participating in the DEA Drug Take Back Day events, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office also has permanent drug take-back boxes at both of the above listed locations. Those boxes are accessible from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. This on-going initiative is a collaborative effort in partnership with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA), the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI), and numerous Louisiana law enforcement agencies.

Learn more about the October 29 Drug Take Back Day event at www.deatakeback.com.