Drop-off day aims to get old drugs out of Long Island homes

Prescription drugs — expired and leftover — can be disposed of Saturday at nearly a dozen locations on Long Island as part of a nationwide effort to get potentially dangerous drugs out of homes.

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which is sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, centers on educating the public on how to discard medications safely as well as the dangers of narcotics abuse.

Started in 2010, National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, is held twice a year, in April and October.

It comes as Long Island and the rest of the country continue to deal with a drug overdose epidemic amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities in Nassau have said there were 356 overdose deaths in the county last year, including 200 suspected deaths not yet confirmed by the county medical examiner. Nassau officials reported 287 fatal overdoses in 2020, including dozens not formally cleared by the medical examiner.

Suffolk officials said there were 415 fatal overdoses in the county in 2021, including 134 suspected deaths not yet confirmed by the county medical examiner. In 2020, there were 411 deaths, including 62 not yet cleared by the medical examiner. In 2019, there were 345 fatal overdoses, including 61 suspected deaths; and 391 in 2018, including 57 not yet confirmed. 

Information on how many of those fatal overdoses stemmed from prescription narcotics or other prescribed drugs was not available.

Nationally drug overdose deaths reached an estimated 100,306 in the 12 months ending in April 2021, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published in November. The deaths are an estimated 28.5% increase from the same period in April 2020.

On the Island, there are 10 drop-off locations, nine in Nassau and one in Suffolk.

For for more information, go to the National Prescription Drug Take Back website, and click on “Locate A Collection Site Near You." According to the website, locations are added daily.