| Disposal program is doing its job |
By: Kay Fate
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Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010 12:05 am
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If sold on the street, the pills in this photo would bring about $5 each. Instead, they’ll be incinerated by the DEA. (Photo provided)
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More than 200 pounds of drugs are off the streets of Faribault, and it took just 10 weeks to collect them.
The Rice County medication safety program known as Take It to the Box was designed to encourage the safe use, storage and disposal of medication. The boxes are secure depositories where people can drop off expired or unused prescriptions or nonprescription, controlled substances, no questions asked.
The program was started to combat a rising trend in water pollution, a result of medications infiltrating the groundwater after being flushed down a toilet or dumped down a drain.
The added benefit, officials learned, was keeping the drugs out of the hands of people who may abuse them.
The response surpassed what local officials expected.
“I thought it would kind of taper off,” said Faribault Police Capt. Neal Pederson, “but it hasn’t.”
The box in the lobby of the Faribault Police Department was first emptied Nov. 13, when more than 100 pounds of both non-hazardous and DEA-controlled drugs were weighed and sealed for pickup by DEA officials.
Technical field chemists were in town again Thursday to handle the latest batch.
The key to the program’s success, Pederson believes, is “different presentations to different groups,” including pharmacists and the coroners from the county.
“They’re the ones who go out to the deaths in homes,” he said of the coroners. “A lot of those people have chronic health conditions,” with multiple medications.
The pharmacists “always tell you to use the medication until it’s gone, but other than taking it all, there’s no other way to get rid of that medication safely,” Pederson said.
As if on cue, one of the chemists opened a large plastic bag filled with prescription bottles and loose pills. In the bag was a bottle with 200 hydrocodone capsules, each 500 mg.
An additional 125 of the pills were collected in other bottles. On the street, the pills would sell for $5 each, according to Scott Robinson of the South Central Drug Investigation Unit.
The oldest medication discovered Thursday was a 1984 prescription of Xanax.
Three bags of medication came in with a Take It to the Box flyer inside, Pederson said, “so the word is getting out.”
Faribault Police Chief Dan Collins was happy with the amount collected, but knows there’s much more out there.
“This shows there’s a definite need for the program,” he said. “I’d expect to see similar numbers in the future, as the word continues to get out.”
The non-hazardous medications will be sent to a facility in Port Arthur, Texas, where they will be incinerated.
The DEA-controlled medications will be taken to a toxic waste incinerator in Sauget, Ill.
The local program is funded by local law enforcement agencies; Rice County Chemical Health Coalition; Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use; and a 2009 Minnesota Rural Flex Grant.
Staff writer Kay Fate may be reached at 333-3128.
THURSDAY'S TAKE
232 pounds (including containers) of non-hazardous drugs
• 156 pounds pharmaceuticals
• 2 pounds aerosols
• 7 pounds dual waste (syringes)
• 1 pound toxics (nicotine, coumadin)
10 pounds of DEA-controlled drugs
• Fentanyl patches
• Morphine
• Xanax
• Oxycodone pills
• Oxycodone syrup
• Vicodin
INTO THE BOX
Unused or expired prescription and over-the-counter medications may be dropped off in the box in the lobby of the Faribault Police Department, 25 Fourth St. N.W. The lobby is open 24 hours a day.
Examples of DEA-controlled substances: morphine; codeine; amphetamines; opium; Fentanyl; cocaine; marijuana; barbiturates; oxycodone; methadone; heroin; peyote; mescaline; anabolic steroids; ketamine; hydrocodone; Valium; Xanax; Ambien; Lomotil; Warfarin.
Examples of non-hazardous substances: aspirin; acetaminophen; vitamins; supplements; suppositories; cough syrup; inhalers; over-the-counter remedies. |
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