DEA’s National Take Back Day 2023
By Ashley Barnes, M.S. What is DEA’s National Take Back Day? The drug overdose epidemic in the United States is a national security threat to public health and safety. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) holds a “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” every year as a reflection of the DEA’s “commitment to Americans’ safety and health, encouraging the public to remove unneeded medications from their homes as a measure of preventing medication misuse and opioid addiction from ever starting” (DEA, 2023). Last year, there were a total of 4,902 collection sites and 647,163 pounds (324 tons) of unneeded medications collected (DEA, 2023). This year, DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is on October 28, 2023. Find a collection site near you using the Collection Site Locator. Statistics According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people who died from a …