Powell police are participating Saturday in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

In order to take advantage of a safe way to dispose of prescriptions that are no longer needed, residents simply come by the department on North Clark Street between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

There, officers will take custody of unused over the counter or prescription medications and ensure that they are properly disposed of. The medications are turned over to the Drug Enforcement Agency — the DEA ­— and incinerated, according to Sgt. Matt McCaslin.

Essentially this is a no-questions-asked service, McCaslin said, and no identification is required. Residents have to take the substances into the department where it is placed in a locked drop box.

Not everything is accepted during this medicince cabinet cleanout. Needles or sharps, mercury (often found in old thermometers), oxygen containers, chemotherapy or radioactive materials or pressurized canisters are not subject to the collection.

“And if someone comes in with illicit drugs, we will take them, too, but there are going to be some questions asked,” McCaslin quipped.

The department usually has two of these events each year, in April and October, but the spring event was canceled because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The department will accept the unused medication year-round, McCaslin said, but those turn-ins require a name from whomever brings them in because they are housed for a longer period of time until they join other medications on the collection days prior to disposal.

The DEA website notes that National Prescription Drug Take Back Day was started in 2001 as a way to provide a safe, convenient and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.