Unused, outdated drugs to be collected Friday to promote ‘safer community’

Area residents with no-longer-used or outdated prescription drugs can safely dispose of them Friday.

A medication take-back day will be conducted 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 the 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 Pace, 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,” Pace says.

Pace 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 doin’ or why we’re doin’ it,” she says.

The semiannual take-back event Friday 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 takeback 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,” Pace says.

The drop boxes must be in secure locations and accessible 24 hours a day, Pace 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 Saturday of April and the last Saturday of October. Locally, the event is held the last Friday of those two months.

At recent take-back events, Pace says several pounds of medication have been collected and safely disposed of by Stericycle. It is not unusual for the dropbox at Clif’s to be filled to overflowing. 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