Drug take-back event set for April 28
Area residents with no-longer-used or outdated prescription drugs can safely dispose of them April 28.
Area residents with no-longer-used or outdated prescription drugs can safely dispose of them April 28.
A medication take-back day will be conducted from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Clif’s Pharmacy, 505 E. Redwood Avenue, Sallisaw. The event is sponsored by Sallisaw NOW Coalition, Sallisaw Police Department and the local store. The pharmacy will accept prescription or over-the-counter, unused or expired medication for safe disposal.
“The take-back event gets unused or expired medication out of the person’s house so it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands,” says Heather Silva, community educator for Sallisaw NOW Coalition. “A lot of people are used to flushing their medication, so we’re trying to deter that because, obviously, it’s getting in our water system, so we’re trying to get that out of our water systems, make sure [the medication] doesn’t get in the hands of anyone it’s not supposed to be. Really just a safer community all the way around.”
“It keeps the medication off the streets,” adds Amy Edwards, prevention services director for Sallisaw NOW Coalition. “It’s done all over the U.S. It’s really great for all the communities. It encourages people to bring old medicine they have — if they had a loved one who passed away, they can just bring a whole sack of their medicine. We don’t take syringes, but, really, any liquids, pills anything like that are welcome.”
“We just ask that everything stays in its original container or in its container, no loose pills or liquids,” Silva adds. “You don’t even have to take the labels off. You just put it in there, and it just gets destroyed like that.”
But those who want to dispose of medication can’t always attend the take-back events or visit other locations that accept the drugs. “That’s why we promote our prescription-drug lockboxes so that people who can’t get to these events or the drop boxes have options,” Edwards says.
Edwards says an additional free option Sallisaw NOW Coalition offers is terra pouches. “You just break the seal — it’s almost like you’re opening up a bag of chips — pour the medication in, add water, seal it and shake it up. It deactivates [the medication] and you just throw it in the trash.”
Silva says there’s really no downside to the take-back events. “It’s just that a lot of people may not understand, they’re just not educated on what we’re doing or why we’re doing it,” she says.
The semiannual take-back event on April 28 is only at Clif’s, but drop boxes are located year-round in the lobbies at Sallisaw Police Department, 101 W. Chickasaw; Gore Police Department, 1201 N. Main; and Roland Police Department, 300 S. Roland Road. The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics also provides take-back kiosks at Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office, 119 S. Oak Street; Muldrow Police Department, 100 S. Main Street; and Redbird Pharmacy, 301 S. J.T. Stiles Street in Sallisaw.
“They’re all over, and they’re a great resource to have,” Edwards says.
The drop boxes must be in secure locations and accessible 24 hours a day, Edwards says, and “police department lobbies are always open, but we know some people are hesitant to go into a police department.”
The take-back events are in association with the National DEA Take Back campaigns, and are offered twice a year the last Friday of April and the last Friday of October. Locally, the event is held the last Friday of those two months.
At the most recent take-back event on Oct. 28, Edwards says 17.6 lbs. of medication was collected and safely disposed of by Stericycle. “We had a really great turnout,” she says of the April event, and adds that the dropbox at Clif’s “was so full, it was coming out the top.” The drop boxes look like the familiar standalone mailboxes.
“I think being at the pharmacy, people were obviously more apt to come and bring their medication,” Silva says. “We had several people who didn’t realize we were there that day, and they went home and brought their medication back to us.”
The take-back event is anonymous, even though labels may have a person’s name on them. “It all gets destroyed, nobody sees it. There’s no sign-up sheets, there’s no information that we collect, they can just drop it off and turn around and walk away. They don’t even have to talk to anybody,” Silva says.
Items accepted:
• Expired & unused medications
• Over-the-counter medications • Medication samples
• Pet medications
• Medicated ointment/lotion
• Inhalers
• Unopened EpiPens Items not accepted:
• Needles, lancets, syringes
• IV bags
• Thermometers
• Bloody or infectious waste
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Business waste (i.e., from nursing homes, etc.)
• Empty containers
• Personal care products (i.e., shampoo, toothpaste, etc.)
Why a take-back event?
• Unused or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue, leading to accidental poisoning, overdose and abuse.
• Pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as street drugs when taken without a prescription or a doctor’s supervision.
• The non-medical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in America.
• The majority of teenagers abusing prescription drugs get them from family and friends — and the home medicine cabinet.
• Unused prescription drugs thrown in the trash can be retrieved and abused or illegally sold.
• Unused drugs that are flushed contaminate the water supply. Proper disposal of unused drugs saves lives and protects the environment.
— Source: Drug Enforcement Administration
