The Alaska Department of Health announced Thursday that it is encouraging Alaskans to clean out medicine cabinets and participate in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday.

Prescription Drug Take Back Day is a national event, put on by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, held in both the spring and fall.

The purpose, according to the press release from DOH, is to “safely dispose of unneeded medications” to prevent misuse and addiction.

There will be three collection sites active on the Kenai Peninsula on Saturday. For the central peninsula, the site will be at the Soldotna Police Department. In Homer, prescription drugs can be taken to the Homer Police Department. Seward’s City Hall will also be collecting.

For Prescription Drug Take Back Day, tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of medication will be collected. The release says that liquids, syringes and sharps will not be.

The release says that “most drugs should not be flushed in a toilet or thrown in the trash.”

Safe drug disposal bags can be acquired for free at Public Health centers like those in Kenai and Homer.

This weekend will be the 23rd Take Back Day since the program was started. The program’s website says that at the last day, in April, more than 720,000 pounds of drugs were collected. To date, just under 16,000,000 pounds have been brought in. In April, Alaska accounted for 4,000 pounds of drugs collected, and 70,000 pounds throughout the program’s history.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.