WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The CDC reports that 50,000 children go to the emergency room each year from prescriptions and medicines they ingest while an adult is not looking. Kinney Drugs is trying to reduce that total.
“It’s really good to get unused or expired medications out of your house for a couple different reasons,” said Shannon Miller, Director of Patient Outcomes at Kinney Drugs.
Kinney Drugs partnered with local law enforcement agencies and the DEA for it’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. It’s a day where Kinney Drug Stores set up kiosks to collect people’s unneeded, leftover, and expired medications.
“And we also want to make sure that we keep certain medications out of the hands of children and others, who may divert the medication and may use it when they shouldn’t,” said Miller.
Miller says people shouldn’t take any expired medications and you want to avoid taking anything that was prescribed for a friend of family member. Officials estimate that nearly 500 tons of medication will be collected across all Kinney Drug locations.
Residents who couldn’t make it to a Kinney Drugs on Saturday still have other options to get rid of their excess medications. Self-service kiosks will be placed at various Kinney locations, and they’ll be available during normal pharmacy hours.
“Watertown Police Department, the DEA and the Alliance for Better Communities understands how important it is to have prescriptions drugs out of the home if you’re not using them,” said Tammie Nabywaniec, Project Director for the Alliance For Better Communities.
Copyright 2022 WWNY. All rights reserved.
