UALR Police Officers Johnny Gonzales and Regina Wade-Carter will be on hand at the UALR Office of Public Safety from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 30, to accept unused prescription medications and dispose of them in a safe and ecologically-sound way.

The UALR collection station is one of 100 sites in Arkansas where residents can drop off old and unused medication to make sure it stays out of the hands of children and potential abusers.

The program is organized by the Arkansas State Drug director and supported by Arkansas Rotarians who sponsored an informational video on the problem.

Law enforcement is the only entity legally authorized to receive scheduled substances from citizens. By turning over old medicine to the police, “Take Back” participants can:

• Protect small children – in 2008 alone, there were over 100,000 trips to emergency rooms due to accidental ingestion of prescription drugs by children younger than age five.
• Prevent dangerous prescription drugs from being abused or diverted.
• Ensure that these drugs will never be stolen by young people straight from their own parents’ and grandparents’ medicine cabinets.
• Prevent overdoses and deaths.
• Ensure pharmaceuticals don’t pollute local water supplies, streams, and lakes – water treatment systems can’t remove them when they are flushed.
• Provide a great community service for those people who want to “do right” by removing these unneeded medications from their homes.
• Help provide much-needed prescription abuse education and awareness to the public.