Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a diverse group of dedicated community members united around the goal of reducing substance use in Lenawee County. LSAPC members work collaboratively to engage and educate the community in order to promote a healthy Lenawee.
Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me tonight is Tim Kelly. He is the chairperson for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, Subgroup of Prevention and Education. And so we’re talking tonight about the upcoming drug take back. Tim, this Saturday is the big day,
Tim Kelly: Yep! From 10 to 2 out at ProMedica. Hope to have a bunch of people come by and drop off some prescriptions that they don’t need any longer.
Kathy Williams: So it’s very simple to turn in your unused or unwanted medications. And I know last year we didn’t have an event because of COVID, but this year we’re hoping to help clean up some of those cupboards.
Tim Kelly: Yeah, yeah. We’re looking for any prescriptions or over-the-counter medications, pet medications also are something you could drop-off. You can drop off sharps or liquid solids, ointments and inhalers. And we just ask that people remove their personal information off the labels. Can leave them right in the bottles and drop them off. And we really want to set a new goal or you record this year if we can, because we didn’t get to do this last year. And in 2019 we had 300 pounds of prescriptions dropped off and it would be really great to just blow that out of the water and get five, six hundred pounds of this stuff out of the out of the community.
Kathy Williams: Exactly. So I know, you know, some people probably have trouble with disposing. We’re going to be there to help them with marking things off if they haven’t got that done, we’ll make sure they’re secure.
Tim Kelly: Yeah, there’s going to be people from the pharmacy right there from ProMedica that can take them from you and they’ll make sure they’re disposed of properly. And those, the first 100 people that come through and drop things off, we’re going to give you a little goody bag. And then I I think there’s actually something WLEN’s doing afterwards around the sweepstakes.
Kathy Williams: There is. We’re going to have a sweepstakes that can enter online and win a two hundred dollar gift basket with all kinds of great gift cards in it. So, you know, we want to encourage people to take the time to go out and get this done. This is not just for opioids. I think sometimes people think a drug take back is just for the the hardcore drugs, but it really is about all of them and keeping them out of the wrong people’s hands, keeping them out of the environment and, you know, just being smarter consumers basically.
Tim Kelly: Yeah, the opioid pandemic was something that really brought this to a greater light, that we knew that we heard the stories of people that were misusing medications, that were stealing medications from family members. So that really raised the issue to a new level. But there’s always been prescriptions that need to be gotten rid of because they’re outdated. And just dumping them down a toilet or throwing them away in the garbage still allows them to somehow end up in the environment. So we need to get any and everything we can out of the environment. We need to make sure that they’re not in cabinets and in places accessible in homes because they are available then to children and anyone else who would like to abuse some medication. It can be just anything that somehow is a prescription or, you know, aspirin’s things like that are fine to bring in. Just let’s get it out of the environment and out of the community.
Kathy Williams: Exactly. Exactly. I know a lot of times when you’re being diagnosed with a new health condition, sometimes they start you on one prescription. Next thing you know, they move to a different one. And so now you have all this stuff you can’t use. Those are the kind of things we want you to just get rid of them. You know, it’s not worth storing them. And so those are, you know, bring them to us this Saturday.
Tim Kelly: This’ll be the first of two events. This the Saturday is the first one. There will be another one in October, which I’m sure we’ll be talking again about as we move closer to that day. Yes. But, you know, in between now and then, just want to remind people that there are what are known as red barrels available in places. You can dispose of them at the sheriff’s department and other locations. I would suggest contacting 2-1-1 and they can identify where to take them to if you’re like out in Hudson, Hudson can deliver them to their police department. But other communities, you just need to know where to take them to. So 2-1-1 can probably locate where those red barrels are for you.
Kathy Williams: Great. Well, Tim, again, we want to remind people it’s this Saturday.
Tim Kelly: 10:00 – 2:00.
Kathy Williams: 10:00 – 2:00 to at the New ProMedica Hickman Hospital and it’s in the back. You’re going to follow the signs back to where they’re doing the COVID testing. Basically, this is where the drug take back is going to be. And, you know, we hope people come on out and help us hit that high 500 pounds would be great.
Tim Kelly: Yes.
Kathy Williams: Alright, Thanks, Tim!
Tim Kelly: Appreciate everything you’re doing and we’ll see you on Saturday.
Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. New messages air on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:15 p.m. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the audio tab on WLEN.com and listen and gather more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.
