MountainStar Healthcare and local law enforcement agencies are holding the annual Crush the Crisis event on Saturday — coinciding with National Prescription Drug Take Back Day — with the goal of encouraging as many people as possible to take their leftover or expired prescription medications to any of the drug drop-off locations across the state.

The focus of this year’s event is to raise increasing awareness about the dangers of prescription drug misuse and the importance of safe and proper disposal of unused or expired medication.

While drug overdose deaths in the United States are decreasing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports fatalities from drug use in Utah and other Western states are on the rise.

In 2023, Utah saw an increase of 8.08% in drug fatalities. Fentanyl is responsible for half of those deaths and is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

“The drug overdose epidemic continues to affect communities across the nation and here in Utah,” said Janet Zarndt, vice president of pharmacy services for the MountainStar health system, which serves over a million patient interactions in Utah. “As part of our commitment to serving Utahns, we are proud to provide a safe way for people to get unused and expired medications out of their homes.

A survey conducted by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported 8.5 million people misused prescription pain relievers, 4.8 million misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives and 4.3 million misused prescription stimulants in 2022, the latest figures available. The survey also found most of those misused medications were obtained from the medicine cabinets of family and friends.

Most medications are accepted with the exception of illegal drugs. Also not accepted are needles, syringes and lancets.

To safely and properly dispose of your medications, seven of the eight MountainStar hospitals will offer drop-off locations. Those include Ogden Regional Medical Center, Mountain View Hospital (Payson), Cache Valley Hospital (Logan), Lone Peak Hospital (Draper), Timpanogos Regional Hospital (Orem) and St. Mark’s Hospital (Millcreek).

In addition, three of MountainStar’s six freestanding emergency centers also will participate, in Pleasant View, Syracuse and Herriman.

Other sites throughout Utah also will provide opportunities to safely dispose of unused medications through National Take Back Day, a program operated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. A list of participating locations can be found online at https://www.dea.gov/takebackday#collection-locator.