MEDICINE HAT, AB — On Saturday May 25, Hatters will have the chance to get rid of their old and unused drugs.
The Medicine Hat Police Service is partnering up with London Drugs to host a prescription drug roundup
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the London Drugs pharmacy at 3201 13 Avenue SouthEast will be accepting unused and expired drugs.
The annual event has been successful over the past years, especially in 2016.
“2016 was our best event,” says Sgt. Mike Fischer with the Medicine Hat Police Service. “We ended up picking up four five-gallon pales full of old outdated prescription pills and even over the counter stuff, so its been successful.”
According to Fischer, it’s important to dispose of old medication for two specific reasons.
“We don’t want these outdated and unused prescription pills to get into the wrong hands,” he says. “You don’t want any poisonings by young kids and we don’t want our young youth getting a hold of these and misusing them.”
Although it’s common to just throw them in the garbage or down the sink, Fischer says that’s also a bad idea because it can introduce toxic chemicals into the environment.
“We want to make sure that people aren’t dumping them down the sink or down the toilette or throwing them in the garbage because either way they’ve gotta end up somewhere in our environment,” he said.
The event also welcomes all plastic drug bottles. They’ll be recycled and cleared of all personal information.
