SPOKANE, Wash. — Hundreds of unused drugs were taken off home shelves and disposed of throughout Spokane on Saturday, for Drug Take Back Day.
A collaboration of several groups, including Spokane Police and community-based partners, hosted the events throughout Spokane. The events give people a place to dispose of unused medication safely, so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
Lorrain Holokai is a community prevention coordinator for the Northeast Support Team Coalition. She helped organize the drug takeback event in Northeast Spokane.
"It's just important to do because it helps to keep our environment safe, as well as the families in our community, especially youth. You don't necessarily know what's out there." said Holokai "We're taking hundreds of pounds of medication every year out of the hands of youth and making sure they're getting safely disposed of."
Another location took place at the Walmart near Shadle Park High School.
"What we find is when medications stay in the home, that they sometimes will fall into the wrong hands," interim Spokane Police chief Justin Lundgren said. "I think it makes our community safer when we anytime that we're able to reduce a threat like this in the community."
Lundgren says drugs pose a significant problem in Spokane. The Spokane Police Department (SPD) said they seized almost 170,000 individual units of fentanyl in the first four months of 2024.
United States Attorney Vanessa Waldref was also at the events. She said drug prevention is one of her office's priorities.
"We really want our members of our community to only be worried about taking drugs prescribed by their doctors to them so that there's not the risk of abuse or misuse," Waldref said.
Even if people didn't have drugs to drop off, the different locations held giveaways and educational resources on the dangers surrounding drugs.
For people who didn't have a chance to bring their unused drugs to an event, different locations in Spokane take unused drugs year-round. You can find those locations at this link.
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