Iowans Take Back 7,000 Pounds Of Prescription Drugs

(UNDATED) -- Iowans dropped off more than 7,000 pounds of expired or unneeded prescription drugs at last month's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

A total of 571,000 pounds were collected nationwide.

The October event was the 29th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Iowans have returned nearly 230,000 pounds of drugs, since the program began.

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day event provides Americans a way to safely and anonymously dispose of medications at nearly 4,000 collection sites across the country, in an effort to prevent prescription drug misuse and reduce the potential for accidental overdoses and poisonings.

Wisconsin returned more drugs than any other state this year, with 53,000 collected.

Since 2010, a 20 million pounds of unused medications have been collected at Take Back Day events.