Walgreens is offering year-round medication disposal at 20 safe disposal kiosks in select Walgreens throughout the state.

The expansion is part of an effort to combat the national opioid abuse crisis by increasing the availability of safe medication disposal around the country. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined representatives Thursday at a Columbia Walgreens to mark the expansion effort.

“South Carolina has one of the top-10 highest opioid prescription rates in the nation, and we know that a lot of those medications end up in the wrong hands after being taken out of parents’ and grandparents’ medicine cabinets,” Wilson said. “Having these safe medication disposal sites will go a long way in preventing a lot of the problems we’ve been seeing in this opioid epidemic.”

Safe medication disposal kiosks allow individuals to safely and conveniently dispose of their unwanted, unused or expired prescriptions, at no cost. The kiosks at Walgreens pharmacies are available during regular pharmacy hours and offer one of the best ways to ensure medications are not accidentally used or intentionally misused by someone else.

Safe medication disposal kiosks have collected more than 270 tons of unwanted medications since the program began in 2016.

A recent survey by Prime Therapeutics showed nearly a quarter of adults keep unused opioids instead of disposing of them.