Dispose of unused prescription drugs Saturday at take-back locations

Dozens of sites throughout the Kansas City metro area are participating in a national prescription drug take-back initiative from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

One of the sites is Children’s Mercy Hospital at 2401 Gilham Road. Jennifer Lowry, the chief toxicologist at the hospital, said the event is important to prevent both accidental overdoses of medications found by young children and intentional overdoses by teens trying to commit suicide.

She said she has treated five such suicide attempts in the last two weeks.

“It was just medications they found in their homes,” Lowry said. “It just doesn’t need to be there.”

Lowry said some teens are also accidentally overdosing while taking family members’ prescription medications to try and get high.

Lowry said people can drop off their unneeded or expired medications with no questions asked Saturday.

A full list of drug take-back sites for each ZIP code is available on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s website.

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Dispose of unused prescription drugs Saturday at take-back locations."