Burlington PD Hosting Prescription Drug Take Back This Weekend

BURLINGTON, MA — The Burlington Police Department is hosting a National Prescription Drug Take Back Day event on Saturday, allowing the public to rid their homes of potentially dangerous, expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Wegmans, located at 53 3rd Ave. in Burlington.

Take Back Day began in 2010 and is sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"The drug overdose epidemic in the U.S. is a clear and present public health, public safety and national security threat," the DEA said in a statement. "DEA's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day reflects DEA's commitment to Americans' safety and health, encouraging the public to remove unneeded medications from their homes as a measure of preventing medication misuse and opioid addiction from ever starting."

According to the DEA, 4,340 law enforcement agencies participated in the last National Take Back Day in October 2022, and there were a total of 4,902 collection sites.

The DEA said that the total amount of prescription drugs collected last October equaled 647,163 pounds, or 324 tons.

Since the Take Back Day program began, a total of 16.6 million pounds, or 8,318 tons, of prescription drugs have been collected, according to the DEA.