EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Prescription drugs sometimes find their way into the wrong hands and the consequences can be deadly.

The second National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is on Saturday, Oct. 25, with communities around Rhode Island and Massachusetts holding their own events to try to combat this problem.

Leftover medications can be misused or accidentally ingested by children. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there were an estimated 36,564 emergency department visits among children under 5 years old for unsupervised medication exposures in 2020.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) started Take Back Day to encourage more people to safely and anonymously dispose of expired or unwanted prescription drugs, no questions asked.

Richard Leclerc, th

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