The Callaway County Sheriff's Office in conjunction with the Auxvasse Police Department and the Auxvasse Lions Club will participate in a national drug take-back program on Saturday.
The Fulton Fire Department and the Holts Summit Police Department also is cooperating in the effort.
The Drug Take-Back event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Callaway Water District No. 2 at 2610 Westminster Ave., which is the intersection of Westminster Avenue and St. Eunice Road in Fulton.
The Auxvasse collection site will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grand Prairie Baptist Church at the intersection of Main Street and Harrison Street in downtown Auxvasse.
Two other Callaway County drug take-back locations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday will be the new Fulton Fire Station on Tennyson Road in Fulton and at City Hall in Holts Summit.
Sgt. Clay Chism of the Callaway County Sheriff's Office urged residents to bring unwanted, unused or expired medications, whether prescription or over-the-counter drugs to the collection site for proper disposal.
All medications may be dropped off anonymously and no personal information will be gathered.
Chism said the national drug take back is sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
"Prescription medication thefts have increased. This program allows residents to rid their homes of unneeded medications that may be prone to theft, Chism said.
Relatives and visitors to the homes of older adults sometimes steal popular medications from medicine cabinets, especially illegal prescription drugs sold in the illegal drug trade.
Tony Cox, manager of Callaway Water District No. 2, said it is important that prescription and over-the-counter drugs not be flushed down a bathroom stool or sent to the landfill in garbage.
"There is the potential when pills decompose the medications can eventually enter ground water. That is especially dangerous because routine testing of water does not test for prescription drugs," Cox said.