National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day a success in Monroe Co.

ABERDEEN, MISS.  (WCBI)- If you have a cabinet or drawer filled with prescriptions you don’t need, this is the weekend to hand them over.

Monroe County started early with National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

Area residents were offered a safe drop off location for old and unneeded medication.

And it paid off.

Monroe County collected 37 pounds of drugs today – the most they have ever gathered in one day.

The medicine cabinet is often the source of abused prescription drugs.

Susan Honeycutt organizes the drop off twice a year. She says the sheriff’s department has a clear objective.

“What we want to accomplish is to get them out of the home and into a regulated drug site,” said Susan Honeycutt from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. “Not only the elderly but teenagers and young children that may be in homes where they are no longer used.”

A national survey on drug use and health reports 9.9 million people admit to misusing controlled prescription drugs.

Controlled drugs include medicine used as pain killers.

Starkville Police and Oktibbeha County deputies will be in front of Kroger, Vowells and Walmart Saturday from 10 – 2 to take your medicine.

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department will also part of Take Back day tomorrow from 10 to 2.