OLD ORCHARD BEACH — On Saturday, a new initiative to provide safe drug disposal year-round in Northern York County will kick off, in conjunction with the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The new initiative for 365-day-a-year medication disposal comes from the Northern York County Prescription Drug Coalition, which includes Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, the Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition, Southern Maine Medical Center, police departments in Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Biddeford and Buxton, and the York County Sheriff’s Office.

Drug drop-off boxes, dubbed MedReturn boxes, will be located in the lobbies of police departments in Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Kennebunk and will provide anonymous free disposal of unwanted medication.

As well, Saturday is a National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be locations throughout the state for people to drop off unwanted prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The service is anonymous and free. No thermometers, batteries, medical equipment, intravenous solutions, injectibles, syringes or illegal substances will be accepted.

According to information from the coalition, the three prior drug take-back days removed nearly 34,000 pounds of medications in Maine, and about 995,000 pounds nationwide. In all three events, Maine ranked number one in the United States per capita for the largest state collection.

“As you can see, this program has succeeded tremendously in removing more than 498 tons of prescription drugs from our landfills, our waterways, and potentially out of the wrong hands,” said Don Lauzier, vice president of community relations at Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, and one of the co-founders of the Northern York County Prescription Drug Coalition, at a press conference Thursday at the Old Orchard Beach Police Department.

Lauzier noted that Saturday’s drug take back day may be the last one the Drug Enforcement Agency sponsors, unless legislation is passed to ensure federal funding.

In the past 10 years, there has been about a 500 percent increase in the abuse of prescription drugs in the State of Maine, said Bill Paterson, project director for Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition at the University of New England, and also a co-founder of the Northern York County Prescription Drug Coalition.

Karen Chasse, community relations and outreach manager for Southern Maine Medical Center, said Maine also has a high population of elderly people, who tend to have more medications than younger people.

Kennebunk Police Chief Robert MacKenzie said that prescription drugs, like jewelry and valuables, can be targets of robberies. Drug take back days and the drop-off boxes are important to get medications out of homes, he said. Otherwise, medications may sit in homes for years in medicine cabinets and can be “easy pickings” for thieves.

“Prescription drugs in the wrong hands can be just as dangerous as illicit drugs,” said MacKenzie.

According to the Maine Department of Public Safety, much of the increase in Maine’s 2010 crime rate was due to burglaries and robberies related to prescription drug misuse and abuse.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.