The Anson County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with Anson County Safe Kids and the Wadesboro Police Department, will hold its sixth “Operation Medicine Drop” on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Anson Station Shopping Center, next to Food Lion.

The purpose of this program is to encourage individuals to turn in their old medicines that are no longer needed or out of date and provide a safe and secure method for disposing of them.

The Sheriff’s Office conducted its first Operation Medicine Drop in 2010. Since then, over 45,000 doses of pills, capsules, morphine patches, opiate based medicines, syringes and needles, as well as liquid medicines and inhalers, have been turned in.

Anson County Sheriff Tommy Allen said that this is an easy and safe way for citizens to properly dispose of old, out-of-date or no longer needed medicines. “What we are doing is to give our citizens a chance to clean out their medicine cabinets, bring the old medicines in, no questions asked and we will see that it is properly disposed,” he said.

Health officials say flushing or putting them in our trash ends up in landfills or ground water. Neither are acceptable ways to dispose of unused medications.

According to the N.C. Attorney General’s Office, more young people are abusing prescription medications than any other drug except marijuana. In 2011, deaths from prescription medicines surpassed those from all other of the illegal drugs combined. In the past 10 years, 75 percent of all unintentional poisonings (both adult and children) were caused by prescription or over-the-counter medications.

This operation is being held in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice and DEA’s “National Take Back Initiative.” All forms of medicines, including animal or pet medications, will be accepted and properly disposed.