A national public health initiative to raise awareness about the dangers of prescription drug abuse will take place on Saturday.

Called the American Medicine Chest Challenge, the initiative challenges families to take five simple steps to safeguard their homes against potential drug abuse:

• Take an inventory of the medicine in your home.

• Secure your medicine chest.

• Take medicine only as prescribed.

• Safely dispose of unused, unwanted and expired medicine.

• Talk to your children about the dangers of prescription drugs.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death toll from overdoses of prescription painkillers has more than tripled in the past decade.

The agency states more than 40 people die every day from overdoses involving narcotic pain relievers.

According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, 70 percent of people who abuse prescription pain relievers obtained them from friends or relatives.

In Albert Lea, we are lucky to have a drop box where we can take unused, unwanted and expired medications at the Freeborn County courthouse. Access to the drop box is available 24/7 right inside the entrance of the Law Enforcement Center.

Since the drop box was installed in 2011, there have been 7,124 pounds of prescription medication disposed in the box.

The drop box started small with about 208 pounds disposed in 2011 and has grown steadily over the years to having 1,578.3 pounds in 2015. That number has already been passed this year — by the end of October, there had been 1,832 pounds disposed in the drop box.

This is a great resource to have in the community, and we encourage even more people to use it.

Help lower the statistics of overdoses.