As the opioid epidemic continues to rage across the country, different events are popping up to aid in the fight against addiction. One of these events is the Southeast Utah Health Department’s and Utah State University Extension’s Prescription Take Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 26.

To learn more about the event, Castle Country Radio sat down with Dr. Ashley Yaugher from USUE to discuss the event and its importance to the community.

Prescription Take Back Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon in both Carbon and Emery County. In Carbon, the event will take place at the USARA Recovery Community Center at 91 E. Main St. in Price. In Emery County, it will be at Stewarts Market at 590 E. Main St. in Castle Dale. 

Dr. Yaugher first discussed why the event falls on the day it does, and what purpose it serves, ” Take Back Day is a national event across the country. It happens twice a year, so in April and October, and it’s on the last Saturday of the month for people to have a biannual chance to go through their medicine cabinet and keep their community safe by disposing of any unused or unwanted medications that you don’t take anymore or are expired. This can include things like liquid medications or over-the-counter vitamins, over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Advil, but also things like old opioids or things that you might have gotten a prescription for that are just lying around your house.” She continued,” By getting rid of these things and getting them out of your home, you’re actually keeping your home and your community safer and preventing substance use disorder.”

In addition to dropping off old and expired medication, attendees can also drop off vape and e-cigarette products,” Without batteries, you can bring in any old vape or e-cigarette devices that you want to get out of your home, as well as any sharps that people have, or syringes that people have laying around the house,” explained Yaugher,” They can also bring those back to keep their home and community safe.”

In Castle Dale, the first 60 attendees will receive free swag bags, but in both locations, attendees can enjoy hot chocolate and pumpkins after dropping off their old prescriptions.

Dr. Yaugher also took the time to explain the importance of events like this,” I think we have so many amazing things that our community does that it’s easy to forget sometimes how many of them that we have locally. And so one of these reasons is just to get the word out about cleaning out your medicine cabinets and keeping everybody healthy.” She continued,” But because in Carbon and Emery, we continue to experience high rates of substance use; we just want to try and do everything we can to keep all of those old medications out of your pantry, out of your closets, but also out of our water supply.”

Prescription Take Back Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon in both Carbon and Emery County. For more details on the event, you can visit the event’s Facebook page here.