Although drug takebacks have taken place occasionally over the years here and elsewhere, opioid use and abuse and the horrific death toll those powerful drugs cause gave special meaning to a take back effort that took place over the weekend.

Upper Peninsula Health Plan employees partnered with the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network and the Marquette County Sheriff’s Department at the Westwood Mall in Marquette Township Saturday to collect unused and leftover prescription drugs — many of which were opioids.

“With the growing opioid crisis,” said event coordinator Karen Taris of UPHP, “a lot of people are getting their start (with drug use) with old prescriptions or unused meds.”

According to a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services report quoted in a recent Mining Journal story, 2,729 people in Michigan died in 2017 from drug overdoses and a report from 2016 suggests that at least five people in the state die of opioid-related overdoses every day and four out of five of those deaths are accidental.

Incredibly, police report that people seeking prescription opioids will watch out for people who are dealing with illnesses or injuries, assuming such persons have drugs at home — that can be stolen.

“Prescription meds are an attractant,” Marquette County Sheriff’s David Derocher said. “Because people will break into your house for them. People will threaten you for them. For example, you see someone who’s got back pain, somebody with crutches or a walker you can pretty much guess that they’ve got medications in that house. People would target that kind of a house to go into to steal medication.”

Add that simply flushing them is terrible for the environment, and drug take back events take on an even greater importance. We’re pleased the organizations cited in this writing participated in the one over the weekend and look forward to others, going forward.