September 28, 2010 8:21 PM
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS
The Telegraph
ALTON - The city launched a drug disposal program Tuesday that will allow people to get rid of unwanted or expired medications safely.
"The disposal box will make a positive impact on our local water supplies," said Karla Olson Teasley, president of Illinois-American Water Co.
A kickoff ceremony was held to initiate the use of the pharmaceutical drop-off box in the lobby of the Donald E. Sandidge Alton Law Enforcement Center.
Teasley said the box provides an easy way for the public to dispose of unwanted medications properly, plus keep them out of the hands of children.
The box is similar to a mailbox, bolted to the floor and in range of a surveillance camera inside the police station. The expired or unwanted medications can be over-the-counter or prescription.
The unwanted or expired medications will be incinerated, which is the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended approach for pharmaceutical disposal.
"We found that it takes more than just one person or one organization to make these kinds of programs happen," Teasley said.
The project is a collaboration among Illinois-American Water, the Alton Police Department, Alton Mayor Tom Hoechst and LeClaire Family Pharmacy (formerly Massey Pharmacy) of North Alton.
"We are protecting two of our most valuable resources - our children and our water," Hoechst said. "It's important to keep drugs out of water systems."
Hoescht said that less than 1 percent of the world's water is fit for human consumption.
"It goes to show you that we should maintain and preserve the integrity of our water system," he said. "Without it, we cannot survive."
Karen Cotton, spokeswoman for Illinois-American, said the Alton drop-off box is the company's second such container in Southern Illinois and the 13th statewide. A 14th pharmaceutical box is in the works for Belleville, but plans are not finalized, she said.
"Our goal is to establish a greatly expanded network of secure pharmaceutical collection centers throughout the state," Cotton said.
Olivia Dorothy, river conservation liaison with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said Pontiac Township High School developed the P2D2 medication disposal program that has served as a model. She said the program accomplishes two goals - it keeps drugs off the streets and children safe, and it protects our drinking water.
"I really hope that someday we see this program in all Illinois communities," Dorothy said.
Cotton said some 130,000 pounds of unwanted medications have been collected at the 12 initial boxes and then incinerated to date.
The event in Alton was held in conjunction with National Take Back Day, which is a program of the U.S. Department of Justice and its Drug Enforcement Administration. The purpose is to remove potentially dangerous, controlled substances from the nation's medicine cabinets, ensuring they will not be used illegally or disposed of improperly so as to harm the environment or public health.
cellis@thetelegraph.com
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Pierce County, Washington Police pleased with response to prescription drug return program (P2D2)
After hundreds of pounds of medication were safely turned over Saturday during Prescription Drug Take Back Day, local law enforcement agencies are looking to make the program permanent.
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 09/29/1012:05 am | Updated: 09/29/10 3:28 am
0 Comments
After hundreds of pounds of medication were safely turned over Saturday during Prescription Drug Take Back Day, local law enforcement agencies are looking to make the program permanent.
Several departments participated in the national program that set up 2,700 collection sites and encouraged people to anonymously drop off unwanted antibiotics, antidepressants and whatever else was languishing in their medicine cabinets.
During a four-hour span Saturday, a steady stream of residents dropped pill bottles in locked boxes.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department set out containers in University Place and South Hill. The public filled two boxes weighing 611/2 pounds in South Hill and four boxes weighing 1671/2 pounds in University Place.
“The results show the need for this kind of effort,” Sheriff Paul Pastor said. “Prescription drugs are increasingly subject to abuse and when misused have the ability to ruin neighborhoods, families and individual lives.”
The department is researching possible security issues and how other agencies have handled the Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program (P2D2), but hope to make drop-off boxes available year-round.
Puyallup police Lt. Dave McDonald said the program, which started there at the beginning of the year, has been a great success.
About 160 pounds of prescription drugs were safely deposited in their lobby before the federal Drug Enforcement Agency-sponsored event. Another 68 pounds of medication were dropped off Saturday by residents, many of whom told officers they stopped on their way to the Puyallup Fair.
“This all comes about because of the same concern about keeping drugs out of the hands of children, keeping drugs from being stolen and abused by drug addicts, and keeping our streams and waterways free of the drugs,” McDonald said.
Many people flush their expired or unwanted drugs down the toilet, increasing the chance that the drugs end up in our water supply, he explained.
The pills – and their containers – are incinerated after they are dropped off at police stations, along with other narcotics seized by police as evidence during unrelated investigations.
Kent police, who gathered 178 pounds of prescription medication during Saturday’s event, said they hope to sponsor another day in the near future.
Tacoma police did not participate in the event because it set up prescription drug collection containers at its headquarters and four of the police substations in August. The secure containers were provided by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
“We already had the boxes in place and had already started our own disposal program,” police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. “The plan is to keep them here. We want people to know they can do it anytime throughout the year.”
Staff writer Stacey Mulick contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/29/1360669/police-pleased-with-prescription.html#ixzz10vIHpZYv
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 09/29/1012:05 am | Updated: 09/29/10 3:28 am
0 Comments
After hundreds of pounds of medication were safely turned over Saturday during Prescription Drug Take Back Day, local law enforcement agencies are looking to make the program permanent.
Several departments participated in the national program that set up 2,700 collection sites and encouraged people to anonymously drop off unwanted antibiotics, antidepressants and whatever else was languishing in their medicine cabinets.
During a four-hour span Saturday, a steady stream of residents dropped pill bottles in locked boxes.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department set out containers in University Place and South Hill. The public filled two boxes weighing 611/2 pounds in South Hill and four boxes weighing 1671/2 pounds in University Place.
“The results show the need for this kind of effort,” Sheriff Paul Pastor said. “Prescription drugs are increasingly subject to abuse and when misused have the ability to ruin neighborhoods, families and individual lives.”
The department is researching possible security issues and how other agencies have handled the Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program (P2D2), but hope to make drop-off boxes available year-round.
Puyallup police Lt. Dave McDonald said the program, which started there at the beginning of the year, has been a great success.
About 160 pounds of prescription drugs were safely deposited in their lobby before the federal Drug Enforcement Agency-sponsored event. Another 68 pounds of medication were dropped off Saturday by residents, many of whom told officers they stopped on their way to the Puyallup Fair.
“This all comes about because of the same concern about keeping drugs out of the hands of children, keeping drugs from being stolen and abused by drug addicts, and keeping our streams and waterways free of the drugs,” McDonald said.
Many people flush their expired or unwanted drugs down the toilet, increasing the chance that the drugs end up in our water supply, he explained.
The pills – and their containers – are incinerated after they are dropped off at police stations, along with other narcotics seized by police as evidence during unrelated investigations.
Kent police, who gathered 178 pounds of prescription medication during Saturday’s event, said they hope to sponsor another day in the near future.
Tacoma police did not participate in the event because it set up prescription drug collection containers at its headquarters and four of the police substations in August. The secure containers were provided by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
“We already had the boxes in place and had already started our own disposal program,” police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. “The plan is to keep them here. We want people to know they can do it anytime throughout the year.”
Staff writer Stacey Mulick contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/29/1360669/police-pleased-with-prescription.html#ixzz10vIHpZYv
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Pennsylvania P2D2 Program Directors Bernie And Bev Strain Reach Out To World Communities
Pennsylvania P2D2 Program Directors Bernie And Bev Strain Reach Out To World Communities
A Call To Action For Proper Medication Disposal On NBC Today Show And CBS Evening News With Katie Couric
We will post video ASAP.
NBC Today Show
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39328587/ns/health-more_health_news/
NBC Video
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/39340775#39340775
CBS with Katie Couric
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/24/eveningnews/main6898463.shtml
A Call To Action For Proper Medication Disposal On NBC Today Show And CBS Evening News With Katie Couric
We will post video ASAP.
NBC Today Show
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39328587/ns/health-more_health_news/
NBC Video
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/39340775#39340775
CBS with Katie Couric
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/24/eveningnews/main6898463.shtml
A Wave of Addiction and Crime, with the Medicine Cabinet to Blame
September 23, 2010
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
BOSTON — Police departments have collected thousands of handguns through buy-back programs in communities throughout the country. Now they want the contents of your medicine cabinet.
Opiate painkillers and other prescription drugs, officials say, are driving addiction and crime like never before, with addicts singling out the homes of sick or elderly people and posing as potential buyers at open houses just to raid the medicine cabinets. The crimes, and the severity of the nation’s drug abuse problem, have so vexed the authorities that they are calling on citizens to surrender old bottles of potent pills like Vicodin, Percocet and Xanax.
On Saturday, the police will set up drop-off stations at a Wal-Mart in Pearland, Tex., a zoo in Wichita, Kan., a sports complex in Peoria, Ariz., and more than 4,000 other locations to oversee a prescription drug take-back program. Coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, it will be the first such effort with national scope.
The take-back day is being held as waves of data suggest the country’s prescription drug problem is vast and growing. In 17 states, deaths from drugs — both prescription and illegal — now exceed those from motor vehicle accidents, with opiate painkillers playing a leading role. The number of people seeking treatment for painkiller addiction jumped 400 percent from 1998 to 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
And from rural New England to the densely populated South, law enforcement officials are combating a sharp rise in crime tied to prescription drugs.
“We’re seeing people desperately and aggressively trying to get their hands on these pills,” said Janet T. Mills, the attorney general in Maine. “Home invasions, robberies, assaults, homicides, thefts — all kinds of crimes are being linked to prescription drugs.”
In Harpswell, Me., a masked man broke into the home of a 77-year-old woman in June, knocked her to the ground and snatched her Oxycontin pills at knifepoint. And in Hyannis, Mass., three men armed with a knife, a bat and a revolver broke into a home in 2008, bound the owner’s hands and feet with duct tape and tore through drawers and cabinets until they found her husband’s Oxycontin.
In other states, the authorities say, pill thieves have infiltrated open houses.
“One will distract the Realtor,” said Matthew Murphy, assistant special agent in charge at the D.E.A.’s New England field division in Boston, “while the other goes and rifles through the medicine cabinet looking for pain medication.”
Skeptics, pointing to the dearth of evidence that gun buybacks have reduced the gun crime rate, question whether even a national take-back effort will have much impact. And they question whether most people will bother to participate when the take-back programs, unlike the gun programs, do not offer a reward for turning in pills.
There is also the reality that many people intentionally hang on to pain or anxiety medicine for future use.
“They might say, ‘I’ll take back my Oxy but not my Vicodin,’ ” said Neale Adams, the district attorney in Aroostook County, Me. He said “easily a third” of the indictments there were related to prescription drug trafficking and abuse.
The officials coordinating Saturday’s drug take-back program acknowledge that even with a few thousand drop-off points, it will capture but a tiny fraction of the addictive drugs lining the nation’s medicine cabinets.
Nor will it address root causes of addiction, like the overprescribing of powerful drugs. In New York City, the number of oxycodone prescriptions filled at pharmacies rose by 66 percent from 2007 to 2009, with a high density of prescriptions per population in middle-class strongholds like Staten Island and Chelsea.
But Steve Bullock, the attorney general in Montana, said the program was a worthy tool, nonetheless.
“It raises the awareness that we tend to hoard these drugs and hang onto them,” he said. “And raising that awareness is one more step in dealing with the overall problem.”
In lobbying the public to participate, law enforcement officials and others who battle prescription drug abuse try to educate people on just how lethal keeping pills around can be.
“It’s really no different than having a loaded gun just lying around the house,” said Joanne Peterson of Raynham, Mass., who started a support group for relatives of prescription drug abusers after her son tried a friend’s Oxycontin and became addicted.
While the primary goal of the take-back day is to reduce the volume of pills in households, there may also be environmental benefits. The collected drugs will be incinerated instead of flushed down toilets, which can release them into the water supply.
Incineration is the best way to dispose of controlled prescription drugs, Mr. Murphy said, but the cost of contracting with private disposal companies can be prohibitive. Some communities have gotten creative: in Bella Vista, Ark., the police department bought a small incinerator specifically to destroy pills. And in West Lafayette, Ind., a pet crematory incinerates pills collected by the police at no charge.
Gary Boggs, executive assistant in the office of diversion control at D.E.A. headquarters in Washington, said the agency hoped to coordinate national drug take-back days twice a year until federal law allows other options for safe prescription drug disposal. Several bills before Congress would loosen regulations on who can collect used drugs.
Meanwhile, a growing number of state legislatures are considering bills that would require drug manufacturers to help coordinate and pay for the collection and disposal of leftover prescription drugs.
Bernard Strain of Philadelphia, whose teenage son Timmy died last year after taking prescription methadone pills that had been sitting in a medicine cabinet, said pushing for drug collection programs had become his crusade.
Timmy had been prescribed Percocet after burning his hand on a lawnmower, Mr. Strain said. When his pain persisted, his girlfriend’s mother offered him two pills that he thought were extra-strength Percocet but turned out to be methadone, another powerful painkiller. He died that night.
“This is about saving even just one life,” said Mr. Strain, who will help supervise a take-back site in Philadelphia on Saturday. “If we can dispose of cans and bottles and oil from our car properly, why can’t we dispose of something the size of a dime that can kill you?”
Anemona Hartocollis contributed reporting from New York and Katie Zezima from Boston.
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
BOSTON — Police departments have collected thousands of handguns through buy-back programs in communities throughout the country. Now they want the contents of your medicine cabinet.
Opiate painkillers and other prescription drugs, officials say, are driving addiction and crime like never before, with addicts singling out the homes of sick or elderly people and posing as potential buyers at open houses just to raid the medicine cabinets. The crimes, and the severity of the nation’s drug abuse problem, have so vexed the authorities that they are calling on citizens to surrender old bottles of potent pills like Vicodin, Percocet and Xanax.
On Saturday, the police will set up drop-off stations at a Wal-Mart in Pearland, Tex., a zoo in Wichita, Kan., a sports complex in Peoria, Ariz., and more than 4,000 other locations to oversee a prescription drug take-back program. Coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, it will be the first such effort with national scope.
The take-back day is being held as waves of data suggest the country’s prescription drug problem is vast and growing. In 17 states, deaths from drugs — both prescription and illegal — now exceed those from motor vehicle accidents, with opiate painkillers playing a leading role. The number of people seeking treatment for painkiller addiction jumped 400 percent from 1998 to 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
And from rural New England to the densely populated South, law enforcement officials are combating a sharp rise in crime tied to prescription drugs.
“We’re seeing people desperately and aggressively trying to get their hands on these pills,” said Janet T. Mills, the attorney general in Maine. “Home invasions, robberies, assaults, homicides, thefts — all kinds of crimes are being linked to prescription drugs.”
In Harpswell, Me., a masked man broke into the home of a 77-year-old woman in June, knocked her to the ground and snatched her Oxycontin pills at knifepoint. And in Hyannis, Mass., three men armed with a knife, a bat and a revolver broke into a home in 2008, bound the owner’s hands and feet with duct tape and tore through drawers and cabinets until they found her husband’s Oxycontin.
In other states, the authorities say, pill thieves have infiltrated open houses.
“One will distract the Realtor,” said Matthew Murphy, assistant special agent in charge at the D.E.A.’s New England field division in Boston, “while the other goes and rifles through the medicine cabinet looking for pain medication.”
Skeptics, pointing to the dearth of evidence that gun buybacks have reduced the gun crime rate, question whether even a national take-back effort will have much impact. And they question whether most people will bother to participate when the take-back programs, unlike the gun programs, do not offer a reward for turning in pills.
There is also the reality that many people intentionally hang on to pain or anxiety medicine for future use.
“They might say, ‘I’ll take back my Oxy but not my Vicodin,’ ” said Neale Adams, the district attorney in Aroostook County, Me. He said “easily a third” of the indictments there were related to prescription drug trafficking and abuse.
The officials coordinating Saturday’s drug take-back program acknowledge that even with a few thousand drop-off points, it will capture but a tiny fraction of the addictive drugs lining the nation’s medicine cabinets.
Nor will it address root causes of addiction, like the overprescribing of powerful drugs. In New York City, the number of oxycodone prescriptions filled at pharmacies rose by 66 percent from 2007 to 2009, with a high density of prescriptions per population in middle-class strongholds like Staten Island and Chelsea.
But Steve Bullock, the attorney general in Montana, said the program was a worthy tool, nonetheless.
“It raises the awareness that we tend to hoard these drugs and hang onto them,” he said. “And raising that awareness is one more step in dealing with the overall problem.”
In lobbying the public to participate, law enforcement officials and others who battle prescription drug abuse try to educate people on just how lethal keeping pills around can be.
“It’s really no different than having a loaded gun just lying around the house,” said Joanne Peterson of Raynham, Mass., who started a support group for relatives of prescription drug abusers after her son tried a friend’s Oxycontin and became addicted.
While the primary goal of the take-back day is to reduce the volume of pills in households, there may also be environmental benefits. The collected drugs will be incinerated instead of flushed down toilets, which can release them into the water supply.
Incineration is the best way to dispose of controlled prescription drugs, Mr. Murphy said, but the cost of contracting with private disposal companies can be prohibitive. Some communities have gotten creative: in Bella Vista, Ark., the police department bought a small incinerator specifically to destroy pills. And in West Lafayette, Ind., a pet crematory incinerates pills collected by the police at no charge.
Gary Boggs, executive assistant in the office of diversion control at D.E.A. headquarters in Washington, said the agency hoped to coordinate national drug take-back days twice a year until federal law allows other options for safe prescription drug disposal. Several bills before Congress would loosen regulations on who can collect used drugs.
Meanwhile, a growing number of state legislatures are considering bills that would require drug manufacturers to help coordinate and pay for the collection and disposal of leftover prescription drugs.
Bernard Strain of Philadelphia, whose teenage son Timmy died last year after taking prescription methadone pills that had been sitting in a medicine cabinet, said pushing for drug collection programs had become his crusade.
Timmy had been prescribed Percocet after burning his hand on a lawnmower, Mr. Strain said. When his pain persisted, his girlfriend’s mother offered him two pills that he thought were extra-strength Percocet but turned out to be methadone, another powerful painkiller. He died that night.
“This is about saving even just one life,” said Mr. Strain, who will help supervise a take-back site in Philadelphia on Saturday. “If we can dispose of cans and bottles and oil from our car properly, why can’t we dispose of something the size of a dime that can kill you?”
Anemona Hartocollis contributed reporting from New York and Katie Zezima from Boston.
Program to Stop Accidental Overdoses Hits Home
CBS) In 2009 there were 7 million Americans aged 12 years and older who abused prescription drugs for non-medical purposes. Starting Saturday the DEA will offer a program to take back unused and unwanted prescription drugs.
For Bernie Strain it's heartbreaking to talk about his dead son.
"One day he joked his autograph would be worth something," says Strain.
Timmy Strain was 18 last year. He was recovering from a burn wound when his girlfriend's mother offered what were thought to be painkillers left over in a medicine cabinet. They turned out to be methadone. Timmy took the pills and died that night.
"There are only so many days you can go to the cemetery," says Strain.
Timmy is one statistic in a sea of troubling numbers. Nationwide there were 13,800 accidental overdose deaths from prescription painkillers in 2006, triple the number from 1999. That's more deaths than from heroin and cocaine combined, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.
"Most of those pharmaceutical drugs originate in our medicine cabinets in our home," says the DEA's Jack Riley.
The DEA's take-back program is designed to get unwanted drugs out of medicine cabinets before unwitting youngsters, confused adults or thieves can get to them. The returned drugs will be incinerated.
The DEA has set up 4,000 drop-off locations across the country where people can turn in their drugs anonymously and the DEA's website will locate the drop-off locations according to zip code.
The number of people requesting treatment for addiction to painkillers has gone up 400 percent from 1998 to 2008. At a Chicago drug treatment center officials hope the take-back program is just the start of an effort to counter the trend.
"I would hope that they would have an ongoing effort. You're not going to have an impact on these kinds of problems by a one-day effort," says the Haymarket Center's vice president Anthony Cole.
Haunted by his son's death, Bernie Strain lobbied Washington for a program like the program the DEA is inaugurating this weekend. He'll be supervising one of the drop-off sites in Philadelphia.
"When I'm at my busiest time with this issue I can let it go to try to help someone else," says Strain.
By doing so, he tries to save a life.
For Bernie Strain it's heartbreaking to talk about his dead son.
"One day he joked his autograph would be worth something," says Strain.
Timmy Strain was 18 last year. He was recovering from a burn wound when his girlfriend's mother offered what were thought to be painkillers left over in a medicine cabinet. They turned out to be methadone. Timmy took the pills and died that night.
"There are only so many days you can go to the cemetery," says Strain.
Timmy is one statistic in a sea of troubling numbers. Nationwide there were 13,800 accidental overdose deaths from prescription painkillers in 2006, triple the number from 1999. That's more deaths than from heroin and cocaine combined, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.
"Most of those pharmaceutical drugs originate in our medicine cabinets in our home," says the DEA's Jack Riley.
The DEA's take-back program is designed to get unwanted drugs out of medicine cabinets before unwitting youngsters, confused adults or thieves can get to them. The returned drugs will be incinerated.
The DEA has set up 4,000 drop-off locations across the country where people can turn in their drugs anonymously and the DEA's website will locate the drop-off locations according to zip code.
The number of people requesting treatment for addiction to painkillers has gone up 400 percent from 1998 to 2008. At a Chicago drug treatment center officials hope the take-back program is just the start of an effort to counter the trend.
"I would hope that they would have an ongoing effort. You're not going to have an impact on these kinds of problems by a one-day effort," says the Haymarket Center's vice president Anthony Cole.
Haunted by his son's death, Bernie Strain lobbied Washington for a program like the program the DEA is inaugurating this weekend. He'll be supervising one of the drop-off sites in Philadelphia.
"When I'm at my busiest time with this issue I can let it go to try to help someone else," says Strain.
By doing so, he tries to save a life.
Drug disposal program lauded for successes
Journal Star
Posted Sep 23, 2010 @ 06:50 PM
PEORIA — More than 130,000 pounds of unwanted medications have been kept out of central Illinois' water supply thanks to a model pharmaceutical disposal program.
Pontiac High School environmental teacher Paul Ritter and his students initiated "P2D2" several years ago as a safe way to dispose of unwanted drugs. Drop boxes similar to mail boxes are placed in a secure location, such as a police station, where people can leave their unused medicines. The collected drugs are incinerated.
"This program gives residents an alternative to flushing the medications, which can be harmful to our water sources," Karla Olson Teasley, president of Illinois American Water Co., said in a prepared statement. "By properly disposing of unwanted medications we are helping to protect our water supply for future generations."
Illinois American has helped set up 12 P2D2-based programs, including sites in Peoria, Bartonville, Chillicothe, Pekin and Peoria Heights. The newest program will open in Alton next Tuesday; more programs are expected to start before year's end.
Posted Sep 23, 2010 @ 06:50 PM
PEORIA — More than 130,000 pounds of unwanted medications have been kept out of central Illinois' water supply thanks to a model pharmaceutical disposal program.
Pontiac High School environmental teacher Paul Ritter and his students initiated "P2D2" several years ago as a safe way to dispose of unwanted drugs. Drop boxes similar to mail boxes are placed in a secure location, such as a police station, where people can leave their unused medicines. The collected drugs are incinerated.
"This program gives residents an alternative to flushing the medications, which can be harmful to our water sources," Karla Olson Teasley, president of Illinois American Water Co., said in a prepared statement. "By properly disposing of unwanted medications we are helping to protect our water supply for future generations."
Illinois American has helped set up 12 P2D2-based programs, including sites in Peoria, Bartonville, Chillicothe, Pekin and Peoria Heights. The newest program will open in Alton next Tuesday; more programs are expected to start before year's end.
National Drug Take Back Event Puyallup, Washington
9/25, 10:00 am-2:00 pm
Location
Puyallup Police Department
311 W. Pioneer
The Puyallup Police Department is one of several Pierce County agencies participating in the national DEA Prescription Drug Take-Back day this Saturday, September 25th, 2010. Unused, unwanted and expired prescription medications can be properly and anonymously disposed of in the Police Department lobby at 311 W. Pioneer. The Puyallup Police Department offers the drug disposal service year round, 24 hours a day through its P2D2 Program (Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal). For the national DEA event, there will be police staff in the lobby on September 25th, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to answer questions and provide additional resources.
Location
Puyallup Police Department
311 W. Pioneer
The Puyallup Police Department is one of several Pierce County agencies participating in the national DEA Prescription Drug Take-Back day this Saturday, September 25th, 2010. Unused, unwanted and expired prescription medications can be properly and anonymously disposed of in the Police Department lobby at 311 W. Pioneer. The Puyallup Police Department offers the drug disposal service year round, 24 hours a day through its P2D2 Program (Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal). For the national DEA event, there will be police staff in the lobby on September 25th, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to answer questions and provide additional resources.
Medication disposal program nets 130,000 pounds to date
09/24/2010, 10:59 pm
Illinois American Water's model for water source protection through proper pharmaceutical disposal has helped set up 12 disposal programs, including one in Streator, and contributed to the collection and proper disposal of 130,000 pounds of unwanted medications.
The pharmaceutical disposal program utilized by Illinois American Water was developed by Pontiac High School Township students and their teacher Paul Ritter. The program, P2D2, has been recognized by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois EPA and the Department of Natural Resources as a model for all pharmaceutical disposal programs.
Illinois American Water, a member of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Medication Education Disposal Solutions task force, works with P2D2, communities and environmental leaders to place pharmaceutical drop boxes at police departments so people can easily dispose of their unwanted medications. The drop boxes, similar to mail boxes, are placed in a convenient location within the police department and bolted to the floor. Collected medications are destroyed through incineration.
On Sept. 25, the DEA plans its first National Take Back Day for prescription collection. Community disposal programs supported by Illinois American Water include three locations in Peoria as well as sites in Bartonville, Champaign, Chillicothe, Pekin, Peoria Heights, Pontiac, Streator, Urbana and Waterloo.
Additional programs will be set up by year-end, including the implementation of the newest program in Alton on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Illinois American Water's model for water source protection through proper pharmaceutical disposal has helped set up 12 disposal programs, including one in Streator, and contributed to the collection and proper disposal of 130,000 pounds of unwanted medications.
The pharmaceutical disposal program utilized by Illinois American Water was developed by Pontiac High School Township students and their teacher Paul Ritter. The program, P2D2, has been recognized by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois EPA and the Department of Natural Resources as a model for all pharmaceutical disposal programs.
Illinois American Water, a member of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Medication Education Disposal Solutions task force, works with P2D2, communities and environmental leaders to place pharmaceutical drop boxes at police departments so people can easily dispose of their unwanted medications. The drop boxes, similar to mail boxes, are placed in a convenient location within the police department and bolted to the floor. Collected medications are destroyed through incineration.
On Sept. 25, the DEA plans its first National Take Back Day for prescription collection. Community disposal programs supported by Illinois American Water include three locations in Peoria as well as sites in Bartonville, Champaign, Chillicothe, Pekin, Peoria Heights, Pontiac, Streator, Urbana and Waterloo.
Additional programs will be set up by year-end, including the implementation of the newest program in Alton on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Saturday, discard old prescription drugs at safe sites
By Jeff Gelles
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bernie and Beverly Strain, a Manayunk couple who lost their 18-year-old son last year to a medicine interaction, have a message for you:
Take some time Saturday to clean out unneeded prescription or nonprescription drugs from your medicine cabinets. Then take the drugs to one of the 3,400 sites around the country - including dozens of police stations and municipal buildings in the Philadelphia area - that have agreed to take them for safe disposal.
Old medications will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For a nearby site, visithttp://go.philly.com/takeback.
The Manayunk couple, parents of three boys, have been working for months to promote what the Drug Enforcement Administration calls its "National Take-Back Initiative," even though it means repeatedly reliving the pain they suffered after a shocking 7 a.m. phone call in August 2009.
"It might sound cliche-ish, but we're trying to turn lemons into lemonade here," Bernie Strain said during a news conference Friday with Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.). He said his son's death helps illustrate why misused prescription drugs are a large, and largely unrecognized, risk.
"We'd much rather be talking about Timmy throwing an 80 m.p.h. fastball, or pitching a no-hitter one day," he said. "We're trying to save a life."
On May 24 - which would have been Tim's 19th birthday - Casey won passage of a resolution setting Saturday as "Timothy Strain Prescription Drug Disposal Awareness Day."
When he died, Strain was a student at Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences. He was taking a prescription painkiller after burning himself on a lawn mower's muffler while cutting grass to raise money for college. His goal was to be a veterinarian.
Strain was still hurting one night while visiting his girlfriend, so her mother decided to give him another, stronger painkiller that she had been prescribed, his father says. Tim was found dead the next morning.
Bernie Strain works as an assistant to State Treasurer Rob McCord, and Beverly Strain is a nurse. As they decided to seek some good from Tim's senseless death, Bernie Strain says, they learned that prescription-drug overdoses or interactions killed more than 27,000 people last year. "More people die from prescription drugs than die from illegal drugs," he says.
They also learned that simply tossing old drugs, which can be powerful toxics or carcinogens, poses environmental risk. For instance, discarded hormones are believed to have harmed development in some species of fish.
Strain now serves as coordinator of Pennsylvania's P2D2 Program, a prescription-drug education and disposal program that aims to make it easier to discard drugs.
"We're always worried about kids' crawling under our sinks and drinking our Clorox," Strain says. "But something the size of a dime can kill you."
Beyond cleaning your cabinets and disposing of your drugs, Bernie Strain's parting advice is to parents regarding their children: "Tell them you love them every day."
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Antioch students help residents discard old pharmaceuticals, safely
Students at Antioch Community High School are taking the lead in a program to help eliminate discarded pharmaceuticals from rivers and streams in the United States.
The prescription pill and drug disposal program called P²D², started by a girl in downstate Pontiac, IL, is an effort to stop people from flushing their old or unwanted prescription pills down the toilet. A local businessman presented the concept to students at Antioch High School as a project and Environmental Club members are running with the idea, calling it "Go Blue with P²D²."
Students presented their plan on Thursday to the Antioch-Lake Villa High School District 117 school board at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa.
"Our plan is launch this for the school and the district," said Stephen Rose, social studies teacher and adviser to the Environmental Club at Antioch High School.
Representing the club, student member Michael Hall said 80 percent of the waterways tested in this country are found to have traces of antihistamines, antibiotics and sex hormones. He said fish are mutating and some male fish in Lake Michigan are laying eggs after being exposed to pharmaceuticals that make their way from toilets and through sewer systems that lack enough filtration to prevent the medication from affecting the waterways.
"In today's society there are so many medications," he said. It's affecting the fish and marine life."
Students have enlisted the help of the Antioch, Lindenhurst and Lake Villa police departments to provide a secure postal-style drop box at the stations where residents can drop off their pills, no questions asked. Hall said the pills are secured by the police department evidence officer and incinerated by a service provider. The incineration method, he said, is a "green" disposal because the intensity of the heat is so high it does not emit toxins into the air.
Students hope to have a drop box available at the Antioch police station in a couple of weeks and the club is also contacting local pharmacies about being part of the effort. They also mentioned that Highland Park High School started a program and collected about 250 pounds of medicines in a month.
For more information about the program, go to www.p2d2program.org.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
City to collect old meds Alaska P2D2
By Sarah Day | JUNEAU EMPIRE
Didn't use all of your prescription? Have old medicine sitting on a shelf? The City and Borough of Juneau will take them off your hands Saturday for proper disposal.
Mayor Bruce Botelho, who is also a former Alaska attorney general, said he'd been aware of a medication round-up going on in several states, including Utah and Vermont. He saw the successful endeavors by his former colleagues in bringing statewide collections and felt this was a worthwhile project.
One of Botelho's concerns is people having old medications sitting around. He said one of his own family members had a tendency to collect or save any prescription they'd ever had. Two issues stem from that - concern for self-prescribing and for theft.
"As I got into it, there are concerns on a statewide basis," he said, adding the primary concern is Oxycodone for law enforcement.
"There's a broader public health concern, not only making sure that prescription medications are away from small children, but also being able to dispose of any remaining items so they don't become abused somewhere else."
Another concern is disposal and people not wanting pharmaceuticals in public waterways.
"The typical methodology has been to simply be flushed down the toilet," Botelho said. "They end up being recycled into the system. We're creating an alternative for folks who want to be conscientious, who want to protect their households."
The answer, in Botelho's view, is to have periodic pharmaceutical round ups.
In order for this event to take place, special permission had to be granted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and disposal by incineration at the municipal waste facility had to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's standards.
The Juneau Police Department will have an uniformed officer at the Nugget Mall parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday with Botelho and City Manager Rod Swope and others to collect prescription and over-the-counter medications, pet meds, vitamins and supplements and homeopathic remedies in the form of tablets, pills or capsules. No containers or tubes, liquids, gels, patches, IV bags, blood or infectious waste, nebulizers, oxygen tanks, mercury thermometers or sharps will be accepted.
"We're trying to do it in a way that will be most convenient for the public," Botelho said. "We've been trying to get this thing going for some time. There have been delays in getting the DEA approval. We hoped to actually have done it earlier in the summer."
Botelho said he hopes holding the event in the Nugget Mall parking lot will make it a minimal inconvenience for people.
"I'm just hopeful that just the very act of doing this will create heightened public awareness," Botelho said. "I hope they re-examine when they are prescribed medications, use them in accordance with the instructions that come with them and recognize we all have a responsibility to not only correctly use medications, but dispose of them as well."
For more information on the national program go to www.p2d2prgoram.org
Contact Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Didn't use all of your prescription? Have old medicine sitting on a shelf? The City and Borough of Juneau will take them off your hands Saturday for proper disposal.
Mayor Bruce Botelho, who is also a former Alaska attorney general, said he'd been aware of a medication round-up going on in several states, including Utah and Vermont. He saw the successful endeavors by his former colleagues in bringing statewide collections and felt this was a worthwhile project.
One of Botelho's concerns is people having old medications sitting around. He said one of his own family members had a tendency to collect or save any prescription they'd ever had. Two issues stem from that - concern for self-prescribing and for theft.
"As I got into it, there are concerns on a statewide basis," he said, adding the primary concern is Oxycodone for law enforcement.
"There's a broader public health concern, not only making sure that prescription medications are away from small children, but also being able to dispose of any remaining items so they don't become abused somewhere else."
Another concern is disposal and people not wanting pharmaceuticals in public waterways.
"The typical methodology has been to simply be flushed down the toilet," Botelho said. "They end up being recycled into the system. We're creating an alternative for folks who want to be conscientious, who want to protect their households."
The answer, in Botelho's view, is to have periodic pharmaceutical round ups.
In order for this event to take place, special permission had to be granted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and disposal by incineration at the municipal waste facility had to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's standards.
The Juneau Police Department will have an uniformed officer at the Nugget Mall parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday with Botelho and City Manager Rod Swope and others to collect prescription and over-the-counter medications, pet meds, vitamins and supplements and homeopathic remedies in the form of tablets, pills or capsules. No containers or tubes, liquids, gels, patches, IV bags, blood or infectious waste, nebulizers, oxygen tanks, mercury thermometers or sharps will be accepted.
"We're trying to do it in a way that will be most convenient for the public," Botelho said. "We've been trying to get this thing going for some time. There have been delays in getting the DEA approval. We hoped to actually have done it earlier in the summer."
Botelho said he hopes holding the event in the Nugget Mall parking lot will make it a minimal inconvenience for people.
"I'm just hopeful that just the very act of doing this will create heightened public awareness," Botelho said. "I hope they re-examine when they are prescribed medications, use them in accordance with the instructions that come with them and recognize we all have a responsibility to not only correctly use medications, but dispose of them as well."
For more information on the national program go to www.p2d2prgoram.org
Contact Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Alaska P2D2 Program - Juneau, Alaska nets over 100 Lbs.
Sergeant Paul Hatch on the left, Mayor Bruce Botelho in the middle, City Manager Rod Swope on the right.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Juneau, Alaska P2D2 huge success.
Pictures and text to come....
Great job to Angela, Jim, Mayor Swope, Chief Browning, and the rest of the team. We are proud of you.
Paul Ritter
National Director
P2D2 Program
Great job to Angela, Jim, Mayor Swope, Chief Browning, and the rest of the team. We are proud of you.
Paul Ritter
National Director
P2D2 Program
S.C., Ga. communities plan efforts to help people dispose of unwanted, expired medication
Charlie Bauder, WNEG AM-630/Special to Independent Mail and Alison Newton, Independent Mail
Posted September 11, 2010 at 6:48 p.m.
Several communities in South Carolina and Georgia are planning to be part of efforts to help people safely dispose of unused, expired or unwanted medication.
In South Carolina, the city of Anderson Police Department and the Pickens County Sheriff's Office will serve as collection points on Sept. 25, which will be National Take-Back Day.
The day will provide an opportunity for the public to hand over expired, unwanted or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications, such as over-the-counter products, for destruction. The service will be free and anonymous for those who use it.
Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse, according to the National Take-Back Day website. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are increasing, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from home medicine cabinets. Many people also do not know how to properly dispose of unused or unwanted medicine, often flushing it down the toilet or throwing it away - both potential safety and health hazards, according to the website.
In Georgia, Operation Pill Drop - the name for the state's efforts such as those for National Take-Back Day - is set to happen from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 25. The Hartwell Police Department and the Hart County Sheriff's Office in Hartwell will be drop-off points.
Operation Pill Drop cannot accept needles/sharps; syringes with needles; thermometers; intravenous bags; bloody or infectious waste; personal care products; empty containers; inhalers; medical equipment; and hydrogen peroxide.
In Stephens County, Ga., The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal, or P2D2, Program, celebrated the unveiling of its first drop-off point Thursday with a Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.
The Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition is coordinating the program locally.
In the county, the Toccoa Police Department will be a drop-off point on Sept. 25.
Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire said the department is proud to be involved.
“So many people have leftover medications and prescription drugs and do not know what to do with them, and we sure do not want those kinds of drugs flushed down into the water system because they end up in Lake Hartwell and everywhere else,” Whitmire said. “It's getting to be a problem all over the country.”
Danny Yearwood with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition said the group hopes to expand the program in the county in the future. Yearwood said he hopes everyone can become involved.
Posted September 11, 2010 at 6:48 p.m.
Several communities in South Carolina and Georgia are planning to be part of efforts to help people safely dispose of unused, expired or unwanted medication.
In South Carolina, the city of Anderson Police Department and the Pickens County Sheriff's Office will serve as collection points on Sept. 25, which will be National Take-Back Day.
The day will provide an opportunity for the public to hand over expired, unwanted or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications, such as over-the-counter products, for destruction. The service will be free and anonymous for those who use it.
Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse, according to the National Take-Back Day website. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are increasing, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from home medicine cabinets. Many people also do not know how to properly dispose of unused or unwanted medicine, often flushing it down the toilet or throwing it away - both potential safety and health hazards, according to the website.
In Georgia, Operation Pill Drop - the name for the state's efforts such as those for National Take-Back Day - is set to happen from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 25. The Hartwell Police Department and the Hart County Sheriff's Office in Hartwell will be drop-off points.
Operation Pill Drop cannot accept needles/sharps; syringes with needles; thermometers; intravenous bags; bloody or infectious waste; personal care products; empty containers; inhalers; medical equipment; and hydrogen peroxide.
In Stephens County, Ga., The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal, or P2D2, Program, celebrated the unveiling of its first drop-off point Thursday with a Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.
The Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition is coordinating the program locally.
In the county, the Toccoa Police Department will be a drop-off point on Sept. 25.
Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire said the department is proud to be involved.
“So many people have leftover medications and prescription drugs and do not know what to do with them, and we sure do not want those kinds of drugs flushed down into the water system because they end up in Lake Hartwell and everywhere else,” Whitmire said. “It's getting to be a problem all over the country.”
Danny Yearwood with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition said the group hopes to expand the program in the county in the future. Yearwood said he hopes everyone can become involved.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
P2D2 Program Up and Running in Stephens Co.
Prescription Drug Disposal Program Up and Running in Stephens Co.
09/10/2010
A program is now underway to collect and properly dispose of prescription drugs.
The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal, or P2D2 Program, celebrated the unveiling of its first drop-off point in Stephens County Thursday with a Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.
The Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition is coordinating the program locally.
The first drop-off point is in the lobby of the Toccoa Police Department.
Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire said his department is proud to be involved.
“So many people have leftover medications and prescription drugs and do not know what to do with them and we sure do not want those kinds of drugs flushed down into the water system because they end up in Lake Hartwell and everywhere else,” said Whitmire. “It’s getting to be a problem all over the country.”
It is the brainchild of an Illinois schoolteacher who, along with his students, wanted to come up with a way to keep unused prescriptions out of the water supply and out of the wrong hands.
The program allows individuals to drop off unused prescription medications in the boxes for law enforcement to collect them and dispose of them properly.
Danny Yearwood with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition said they hope to grow the program in the future.
He said the goal is to mark a day on the calendar, perhaps this month, to have as an official drop-off day and heavily promote the program.
Yearwood said he hopes everyone can get involved.
“We hope all of the businesses and families on that day, if they have any unused prescription or over-the-counter medications, drop them off, so that we have them incinerated, so kids do not have the opportunity to pick them up,” said Yearwood.
For the time being, more drop-off points are planned in Stephens County. Yearwood said the next one is scheduled to be set up at the Stephens County Detention Center with the help of the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.
09/10/2010
A program is now underway to collect and properly dispose of prescription drugs.
The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal, or P2D2 Program, celebrated the unveiling of its first drop-off point in Stephens County Thursday with a Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.
The Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition is coordinating the program locally.
The first drop-off point is in the lobby of the Toccoa Police Department.
Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire said his department is proud to be involved.
“So many people have leftover medications and prescription drugs and do not know what to do with them and we sure do not want those kinds of drugs flushed down into the water system because they end up in Lake Hartwell and everywhere else,” said Whitmire. “It’s getting to be a problem all over the country.”
It is the brainchild of an Illinois schoolteacher who, along with his students, wanted to come up with a way to keep unused prescriptions out of the water supply and out of the wrong hands.
The program allows individuals to drop off unused prescription medications in the boxes for law enforcement to collect them and dispose of them properly.
Danny Yearwood with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition said they hope to grow the program in the future.
He said the goal is to mark a day on the calendar, perhaps this month, to have as an official drop-off day and heavily promote the program.
Yearwood said he hopes everyone can get involved.
“We hope all of the businesses and families on that day, if they have any unused prescription or over-the-counter medications, drop them off, so that we have them incinerated, so kids do not have the opportunity to pick them up,” said Yearwood.
For the time being, more drop-off points are planned in Stephens County. Yearwood said the next one is scheduled to be set up at the Stephens County Detention Center with the help of the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.
Alaska P2D2 Program Juneau
City to collect old medsBy Sarah Day | JUNEAU EMPIRE
Didn't use all of your prescription? Have old medicine sitting on a shelf? The City and Borough of Juneau will take them off your hands Saturday for proper disposal.
Mayor Bruce Botelho, who is also a former Alaska attorney general, said he'd been aware of a medication round-up going on in several states, including Utah and Vermont. He saw the successful endeavors by his former colleagues in bringing statewide collections and felt this was a worthwhile project.
One of Botelho's concerns is people having old medications sitting around. He said one of his own family members had a tendency to collect or save any prescription they'd ever had. Two issues stem from that - concern for self-prescribing and for theft.
"As I got into it, there are concerns on a statewide basis," he said, adding the primary concern is Oxycodone for law enforcement.
"There's a broader public health concern, not only making sure that prescription medications are away from small children, but also being able to dispose of any remaining items so they don't become abused somewhere else."
Another concern is disposal and people not wanting pharmaceuticals in public waterways.
"The typical methodology has been to simply be flushed down the toilet," Botelho said. "They end up being recycled into the system. We're creating an alternative for folks who want to be conscientious, who want to protect their households."
The answer, in Botelho's view, is to have periodic pharmaceutical round ups.
In order for this event to take place, special permission had to be granted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and disposal by incineration at the municipal waste facility had to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's standards.
The Juneau Police Department will have an uniformed officer at the Nugget Mall parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday with Botelho and City Manager Rod Swope and others to collect prescription and over-the-counter medications, pet meds, vitamins and supplements and homeopathic remedies in the form of tablets, pills or capsules. No containers or tubes, liquids, gels, patches, IV bags, blood or infectious waste, nebulizers, oxygen tanks, mercury thermometers or sharps will be accepted.
"We're trying to do it in a way that will be most convenient for the public," Botelho said. "We've been trying to get this thing going for some time. There have been delays in getting the DEA approval. We hoped to actually have done it earlier in the summer."
Botelho said he hopes holding the event in the Nugget Mall parking lot will make it a minimal inconvenience for people.
"I'm just hopeful that just the very act of doing this will create heightened public awareness," Botelho said. "I hope they re-examine when they are prescribed medications, use them in accordance with the instructions that come with them and recognize we all have a responsibility to not only correctly use medications, but dispose of them as well."
For more information on the national program go to www.p2d2prgoram.org
Contact Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Didn't use all of your prescription? Have old medicine sitting on a shelf? The City and Borough of Juneau will take them off your hands Saturday for proper disposal.
Mayor Bruce Botelho, who is also a former Alaska attorney general, said he'd been aware of a medication round-up going on in several states, including Utah and Vermont. He saw the successful endeavors by his former colleagues in bringing statewide collections and felt this was a worthwhile project.
One of Botelho's concerns is people having old medications sitting around. He said one of his own family members had a tendency to collect or save any prescription they'd ever had. Two issues stem from that - concern for self-prescribing and for theft.
"As I got into it, there are concerns on a statewide basis," he said, adding the primary concern is Oxycodone for law enforcement.
"There's a broader public health concern, not only making sure that prescription medications are away from small children, but also being able to dispose of any remaining items so they don't become abused somewhere else."
Another concern is disposal and people not wanting pharmaceuticals in public waterways.
"The typical methodology has been to simply be flushed down the toilet," Botelho said. "They end up being recycled into the system. We're creating an alternative for folks who want to be conscientious, who want to protect their households."
The answer, in Botelho's view, is to have periodic pharmaceutical round ups.
In order for this event to take place, special permission had to be granted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and disposal by incineration at the municipal waste facility had to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's standards.
The Juneau Police Department will have an uniformed officer at the Nugget Mall parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday with Botelho and City Manager Rod Swope and others to collect prescription and over-the-counter medications, pet meds, vitamins and supplements and homeopathic remedies in the form of tablets, pills or capsules. No containers or tubes, liquids, gels, patches, IV bags, blood or infectious waste, nebulizers, oxygen tanks, mercury thermometers or sharps will be accepted.
"We're trying to do it in a way that will be most convenient for the public," Botelho said. "We've been trying to get this thing going for some time. There have been delays in getting the DEA approval. We hoped to actually have done it earlier in the summer."
Botelho said he hopes holding the event in the Nugget Mall parking lot will make it a minimal inconvenience for people.
"I'm just hopeful that just the very act of doing this will create heightened public awareness," Botelho said. "I hope they re-examine when they are prescribed medications, use them in accordance with the instructions that come with them and recognize we all have a responsibility to not only correctly use medications, but dispose of them as well."
For more information on the national program go to www.p2d2prgoram.org
Contact Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
CAMA sponsors Operation Medicine Cabinet
SARAH SCHMIDT
sschmidt@parisbeacon.com
Not everyone finishes their cold medication when they recover from the sniffles, which is why the Coalition Against Methamphetamine Abuse is sponsoring a medicine give-back for Paris and Marshall.
Operation Medicine Cabinet, sponsored by CAMA and the CAMA Teens, began last year with the goal of getting people to drop off their old medication for proper disposal. The CAMA Teens will be running a car wash at the same time for those who drop off medication as an added benefit to hopefully get more people to drop off old medication, both prescription and over-the-counter.
“Last year, we picked up about 120 pounds of medicine,” said CAMA Director Kristen Chittick. “The purpose is twofold - there’s a 14 percent abuse rate in our area of Clark and Edgar Counties, according to a youth risk behavior survey we took. The kids told us that this was going on, so we decided to follow it up.”
Chittick said teens taking the survey indicated that one common source for substance abuse was the medicine cabinet. This, she said, is the preventative side of Operation Medicine Cabinet, as they work to dispose of medicines that might fall into the wrong hands. Chittick also said this drive worked to remind people of accessible these medications were for people living in the same household.
“This is also to remind people that drugs and medicine are easy to come by,” said Chittick. “It’s not from a drug dealer on the street. We’re trying to make it important for parents and grandparents (to dispose of old medication).”
The other purpose of the program is to keep people from disposing of old medicines in an unsafe manner. Chittick said that many put their old medicines in the trash or flush them, something that the P2D2 ecology program said can harm the environment. The P2D2 program is helping to support this year’s Operation Medicine Cabinet.
When people drop their old medicines off, Chittick said, there will be law enforcement on site, since some of the medicines dropped off are narcotics. No one will ask any questions about how they came by the medicines, she said, and no information or prescription bottles needed to be dropped off. The program could mark out any prescription bottle personal information with a Sharpie, Chittick said. Once the medicines are identified, tallied, and weighed, she said that law enforcement would transport the meds and have them incinerated.
“The goal is just to get rid of it,” said Chittick. “To sort the meds, we will have a pharmacist on both sites, partly because the Drug Enforcement Administration wants us to. They have their whole protocol, and they want to know what medicines are being brought back.”
Alongside Operation Medicine Cabinet, the CAMA Teens will be holding a car wash for those dropping off old medicine, with popcorn and lemonade available at the side while the teens work. Chittick noted that donations to their program would be accepted and appreciated.
Operation Medicine Cabinet will be held in two locations simultaneously on Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., at the Citizens’ National Bank East Branch in Paris, across from the McDonald’s, and at Lincoln Trails Ford on Route 1 in Marshall. For more information, Chittick said, people could contact her at 465-4118, ext. 267, or go to the Web site at www.camacoalition.org.
sschmidt@parisbeacon.com
Not everyone finishes their cold medication when they recover from the sniffles, which is why the Coalition Against Methamphetamine Abuse is sponsoring a medicine give-back for Paris and Marshall.
Operation Medicine Cabinet, sponsored by CAMA and the CAMA Teens, began last year with the goal of getting people to drop off their old medication for proper disposal. The CAMA Teens will be running a car wash at the same time for those who drop off medication as an added benefit to hopefully get more people to drop off old medication, both prescription and over-the-counter.
“Last year, we picked up about 120 pounds of medicine,” said CAMA Director Kristen Chittick. “The purpose is twofold - there’s a 14 percent abuse rate in our area of Clark and Edgar Counties, according to a youth risk behavior survey we took. The kids told us that this was going on, so we decided to follow it up.”
Chittick said teens taking the survey indicated that one common source for substance abuse was the medicine cabinet. This, she said, is the preventative side of Operation Medicine Cabinet, as they work to dispose of medicines that might fall into the wrong hands. Chittick also said this drive worked to remind people of accessible these medications were for people living in the same household.
“This is also to remind people that drugs and medicine are easy to come by,” said Chittick. “It’s not from a drug dealer on the street. We’re trying to make it important for parents and grandparents (to dispose of old medication).”
The other purpose of the program is to keep people from disposing of old medicines in an unsafe manner. Chittick said that many put their old medicines in the trash or flush them, something that the P2D2 ecology program said can harm the environment. The P2D2 program is helping to support this year’s Operation Medicine Cabinet.
When people drop their old medicines off, Chittick said, there will be law enforcement on site, since some of the medicines dropped off are narcotics. No one will ask any questions about how they came by the medicines, she said, and no information or prescription bottles needed to be dropped off. The program could mark out any prescription bottle personal information with a Sharpie, Chittick said. Once the medicines are identified, tallied, and weighed, she said that law enforcement would transport the meds and have them incinerated.
“The goal is just to get rid of it,” said Chittick. “To sort the meds, we will have a pharmacist on both sites, partly because the Drug Enforcement Administration wants us to. They have their whole protocol, and they want to know what medicines are being brought back.”
Alongside Operation Medicine Cabinet, the CAMA Teens will be holding a car wash for those dropping off old medicine, with popcorn and lemonade available at the side while the teens work. Chittick noted that donations to their program would be accepted and appreciated.
Operation Medicine Cabinet will be held in two locations simultaneously on Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., at the Citizens’ National Bank East Branch in Paris, across from the McDonald’s, and at Lincoln Trails Ford on Route 1 in Marshall. For more information, Chittick said, people could contact her at 465-4118, ext. 267, or go to the Web site at www.camacoalition.org.
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