Countywide drug take-back is Saturday

Residents of Clark and Skamania counties will have five places to bring their unused medications Saturday as part of a drug take-back event.

All over-the-counter drugs and unwanted medications, controlled and noncontrolled, will be accepted for disposal at each location.

The disposal sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The locations are:

• PeaceHealth Southwest Urgent Care, in the back lot at Main Street and 33rd Street, Vancouver.

• Kaiser Permanente Cascade Park, 12607 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver.

• Battle Ground Police Department, 507 S.W. First St., Battle Ground.

• Silver Star Search & Rescue, 1220 A St., Washougal.

• Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, 200 N.W. Vancouver Ave., Stevenson.

Sharps and used syringes will be accepted only at the Kaiser Permanente Cascade Park location.

Educational Service District 112, which helped with organizing the event, says 71 percent of all drug poisoning deaths are opioid-related, according to county health department data.

Of those deaths, 75 percent are related to prescription opioids. That’s up about 16 percentage points from 2013.

These drug-disposal programs, the logic goes, help ensure those drugs go to who needs them, taking what’s unneeded out of circulation and out of the hands of those who don’t.