For many people, once their medications are expired or no longer needed, bottles begin to collect on the shelves of their medicine cabinets. While seemingly harmless, consider the following: the majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from friends and family and often come from home medicine cabinets.

So this problem can be solved by throwing unused and expired medications in the trash, right? Wrong. Changing the location of these sometimes toxic medications does not change their accessibility. In fact, for those looking to abuse medications or for curious children and pets, the trash can may be an ideal, unmonitored location. OK, then people can simply flush them down the toilet, right? Not unless you want medications to show up in your water supply and the environment. So how do we dispose of unused and expired medications?

St. Louis College of Pharmacy (STLCOP), the City of St. Louis, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are partnering to allow residents to drop-off expired and unused prescription and over-the-counter medications at sites throughout the region, including four Walgreens locations in the city of St. Louis. Details are as follows:

DATE: Saturday, April 27, 2013
TIME: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Visit the DEA's Web site for drop-off locations near you. 

Walgreens disposal sites:

4218 Lindell, St. Louis, MO 63108;
3822 S. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO 63109;
1530 Lafayette, St. Louis, MO 63104; and
3720 N. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO 63115

Learn more about how to dispose of medications safely by exploring our web resources below. Questions? E-mail medicationsafety@stlcop.edu. 

For more information about the Missouri Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal (P2D2) program, which features secure medication disposal drop boxes open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, please click here.