The National Drug Enforcement Administration will be holding its next National Take Back Day Initiative on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This is a safe and convenient opportunity for Lincoln County residents to dispose of unwanted and outdated medications. Unless handled properly, prescription drugs have the potential to cause great and lasting harm to both the natural environment and our communities.

The goal of the Take Back Day Initiative is to try to prevent such harm from happening by assisting the public with the often complicated and messy task of medication disposal while raising awareness of the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

Lincoln County will have five medication collection sites. There will be law enforcement officers at all five sites. Please do not attempt to leave medication outside of scheduled hours. The collection sites for Lincoln County are the following.

Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay Harbor Town Office

Wiscasset, Lincoln County Communication Center

Damariscotta, Miles Memorial Hospital

Waldoboro, Sproul Block Apartments

Whitefield (Coopers Mills), Sheepscot Valley Health

Prescription and non-prescription medications, over-the-counter substances, and medications for pets will be accepted, as well as liquid pharmaceutical products such as cough syrup.

All liquid pharmaceuticals should remain in original containers with caps sealed to prevent leakage. Needles and syringes will not be accepted.

The public will not be subjected to any questions regarding medications, nor will there be any record made of particular types, or amounts, of medications brought to collection sites.

Every effort will be made to protect privacy. Participants are encouraged to remove all personal identifying information from prescription labels before disposing of medications.

The good news is that the Drug Take Back Day Initiative is working. Thanks to an alert and concerned public, prescription drugs are more difficult to acquire in Maine than ever before. According to a September 2013 article by Deborah McDermott entitled “Maine battles back in drug abuse epidemic,” the “opiate tidal wave” of prescription drug use and abuse that was threatening to overwhelm the state has diminished somewhat as a result of increased law enforcement resources, tighter restrictions on the dispensing of medications and heightened public awareness about prescription drug abuse through programs such as this.

This good news, however, comes with a dark side — heroin. Maine is currently experiencing a heroin epidemic. Paradoxically, the recent and disturbing rise of heroin use in Maine is directly connected, even attributable, to a scarcity of prescription drugs.

In short, the way the public can be most helpful in the present heroin crisis is to keep up the good work in reducing the availability of prescription drugs. The sustained determination, vigilance and compassion that the citizens of Maine have shown in this effort are the reason why the state of Maine has consistently ranked #1 in the nation in this effort.