Law enforcement collected hundreds of pounds of prescription drugs on Saturday as a part of the nationwide Drug Take Back event to prevent drugs from getting into the wrong hands.
Law enforcement say more than 6,000 Americans become addicted to prescription pain medications everyday.
DEA agent David Turner greeted Evansville residents Saturday afternoon as they drove up to drop off their unwanted prescription drugs. It's all a part of a nationwide effort to prevent drug related addiction and crime.
"Some of these drugs can actually be resold on the street for profit and a lot of the stuff is highly abused," Turner said.
"That was really our main concern, that somebody would get a hold of these and sell them or whatever," said Evansville resident Mary Lue Russler.
Prescription drug abuse is the number one drug challenge to law enforcement, greater than cocaine, heroine and methanphetamine. A problem that affected more than 2.4 million new users last year.
"More Americans died of prescription drug overdoses than were killed on our nation's highways," said US Attorney Joseph Hogsett.
Most people don't know what to do with the drugs they no longer use and have been waiting for this day.
"We've been accumulating these pills for a long time, some of them even go back as far as 1987. So, we've just been putting them on a shelf and this is an opportunity to dispose of them. I'm really glad to get rid of them," Russler said.
Officials accepted all types of drugs from cough syrups to oxycodone and even pet medications.
"From here we take it to Indy and we have a contract with a big furnace that all this is thrown into and incinerated," Turner said.
Officials say they expected to collect more than 1,000 pounds of drugs this weekend, more than 270 pounds came from Evansville.
Kentucky also participated in the nationwide event. Kentucky State Police say the event resulted in the collection of 20 pounds of unwanted medications.
If you didn't have a chance to clean out your medicine cabinets this weekend, you'll have another chance to dispose of those unwanted drugs at the next Take Back Day in the spring.
Law enforcement say more than 6,000 Americans become addicted to prescription pain medications everyday.
