RALEIGH - Some of the most dangerous drugs out there can sit unprotected in someone's medicine cabinet. So the State Bureau of Investigations is holding its twice-yearly program to allow people to safely dispose of unused medication in secure bins across the state until Saturday. Donnie Varnell, SBI special agent in charge, says 70 percent of the prescription drugs young people abuse are taken from someone else.

"One of the key factors in the program is to get that unused medication, which is potentially deadly, out of those residences and disposed of properly," Varnell says.

Varnell says this is a better alternative to dumping drugs down the drain or mixing pills with a neutralizing agent and burying it.

"While that's better than flushing it, it still gets into our ground and possibly into our groundwater," Varnell says. "So what we try to do in North Carolina is once it all comes in and it gets to the bureau, we will take it to an EPA-approved incinerator and we dispose of it that way."

In past years, the drop box program has collected nearly 10,000 pounds of medication per season.

"In about the past three years, total we've collected about 60 million dosage units of unused medication," Varnell says.

This program comes at a time when Varnell says overdoses in North Carolina are on the rise.

"For every overdose death that we see in the state, which is about 1,100 a year, we see probably 30-plus people going to the emergency departments at hospitals for overdose issues," he says. "So I can't say we've seen a decline but we certainly know we have seen a real increase in awareness."

For more information on the program and the location of drop boxes, go to NCSafeKids.org and look for "Medicine Drop."