KEARNS, Utah — People will have a chance to safely clear out unused prescription drugs at a Drug Take Back Day event this month.
The MyKearns Community Coalition and the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake are asking the community to bring their unused, expired, and unwanted prescription drugs to the event, which will run on Saturday, August 8 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Oquirrh Park in Kearns.
Tiffany Naccarato, the development director at USARA, said she’s in long-term recovery and that a part of her addiction involved medication from home. “A part of my addiction unfortunately was taking some of my mother’s prescriptions,” she said.
Her story is why organizers say it’s important to safely get unused prescriptions out of the home.
Unified Police Kearns Precinct Chief Levi Hughes said keeping those medications around can be dangerous, especially if children or grandchildren find them. “Statistically over a given year, our country has over 13 thousand deaths annually from prescription drug overdoses. Thirteen thousand deaths a year? That’s too many,” Chief Hughes said.
Naccarato says taking that step can help keep people from going through what she went through.
“When we have medication that we’re going to get rid of, we can also talk about it with our kids, with our family members and help put a pause on future addictions,” Naccarato said.
For more information, go to MyKearns Community Coalition.
