About 3,800 pounds of unused prescription drugs were collected during the state’s second, drug-take-back day of 2011, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Tuesday.
The first drug take-back day was in April.
The events — coordinated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — encourage people to clean out their drug cabinets and take in unwanted or expired medications to law enforcement centers so that officers can safely destroy the medications.
The second take-back day this year was held Oct. 29.
Unused prescriptions can be turned in year-round at many local law enforcement locations. For more information, contact a local sheriff’s office or police department.
Officials said medicines left in home medicine cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion and abuse.
More Americans abuse prescription drugs than use cocaine, hallucinogens and heroin combined, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Studies show that individuals who abused prescription drugs often obtained them from family or friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. Officials said many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away, which poses safety and health hazards.