Residents looking to safely dispose of prescription medications are invited to drop them off this weekend — into the right hands.

Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office drug unit investigators are setting up camp at Lowe’s Home Improvement in Washington. Their goal is to collect as many prescription and over-the-counter drugs as they can — those expired, no longer in use and just hanging about in medicine cabinets across the county — to keep them out of the hands of those who would abuse them. According to Attorney General Roy Cooper, prescription drugs are leading to more overdose deaths in North Carolina, especially among young people and in the case of young people, prescription drugs are second only to marijuana in recreational drug use.

That’s the reason local law enforcement, in alliance with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Safe Kids North Carolina and the DEA, will hold its second Operation Medicine Drop of the year. At the March event, more than 12 million doses were collected across the state — around 90,000 of those came from Beaufort County.

Investigator Greg Rowe, the sheriff’s office’s designated drug diversion officer, is tasked with getting the word out about Operation Medicine Drop, as well as the recent installation of a permanent pill drop box in the sheriff’s office lobby on Market Street. The box has been utilized plenty, but Rowe believes its presence won’t affect Operation Medicine Drop numbers yet.

“I would say probably not on this first time around,” Rowe said. “We’ve advertised the box, but some doctors are just learning about it now. We’ll see an increase in box use after Saturday and then a drop off in Operation Medicine Drop after the event. At least that’s what I’m predicting.”

Rowe said since the box’s June installation, he and the sheriff’s office evidence custodian have emptied it three times. The two count the number of doses, weigh the box of drugs before it’s sealed and placed into evidence until the next destruction date with the county incinerator. On all three occasions, the doses have numbered right about the 4,000 mark.

Unlike the Operation Medicine Drop, where a wide variety of medications are collected, Rowe said the contents of the permanent box have been a little more specific.

“We’re seeing a lot more of the controlled substances,” Rowe said. “I think a lot of it has come from cancer patients who have passed on.”

Also unlike Saturday’s event, the sheriff’s office box cannot accept needles, as per DEA guidelines.