The prescription drop off day in Chatham-Kent is going to be expanded.
Police services board members approved the program to be held twice a year instead of just once and it will be extended across the entire municipality instead of just being held in Wallaceburg, Chatham and Tilbury.
Mayor Randy Hope says the police board is being more proactive to prevent crime.
"If we do it and make more awareness to it, maybe the daughter or the son or somebody is going to grab those extra drugs and drop them off. What we're trying to do is crime prevention because we are seeing some of the break and enters that are occurring where they're going into the medicine cabinet and grabbing the first thing," says Mayor Hope.
This year's drop off day held May 13 collected 1,200 narcotic pills.
That's 382 more than last year.
Almost 7,300 pills have been collected since the program started in 2013.
Hope says there's value to the program and expanding it is the right thing to do.
"It's only best that we expand the program, provide more accessibility and take a leading role. Where else can you get the value for 1,500 bucks that's actually taking drugs off the streets and potential break and enters from being committed," Hope says.
Hope says the program will reach more people and will hopefully prevent more addictions.
"We see it in our homes, with our aging parents and with a number of things. Sometimes prescription drugs happen to be just sitting there and you don't think about it when you go back to pharmacist to bring back old drugs," says the Mayor.