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 on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. And we are going to be talking about how the drug take-back event went on Saturday, October 23rd. And Tim, I think we had a good turnout.
Tim Kelly: Yeah, we did. We actually had more people than we did back in April.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Tim Kelly: We had about 325 people come through.
Kathy Williams: Very good.
Tim Kelly: Yep.
Kathy Williams: You know, and it was interesting. Of course, we’re going to talk about the numbers and we, we did take in a little bit less items.
Tim Kelly: Yeah.
Kathy Williams: But we had a lot more people participate. And so, you know, that’s one of the key things is to just be able to reach more people and help inform them on safe ways to dispose of their non-usable drugs anymore. And, you know, just things that are outdated. And Tim, why don’t you run through some of the numbers for us?
Tim Kelly: Sure. Well, we had a total of 342 pounds of substances returned to us and kind of to break that down: there was 163 pounds of tablets or capsules, that type of medicine.
Kathy Williams: It’s hard to even visualize …
Tim Kelly: Yeah.
Kathy Williams: 163 pounds of tablets.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. Little teeny tablets and they’re 163 pounds.
Kathy Williams: Yeah, it’s crazy.
Tim Kelly: Liquids, we had 165 pounds of those.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Tim Kelly: 12 pounds of inhalers.
Kathy Williams: Wow.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. And then, we had 8 38-gallon containers of sharps. So if you can imagine 38-gallon containers, eight of those full of needles.
Kathy Williams: Full of needles that are thankfully disposed of properly at this time.
Tim Kelly: Yep.
Kathy Williams: I know it was nice too, that we, we did have some people go pick up things from their neighbors and from people that couldn’t make it out there themselves. And so that was, that was wonderful to see neighbors, helping neighbors to help clean out their cupboards and such. It was also interesting, I think, that we did have more people that showed up this time.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. You know, you had mentioned that more people is more important than the weight.
Kathy Williams: It is.
Tim Kelly: You know, tablets only weigh so much, but the more of those we get out of people’s homes is the better for the whole community. So, having a lot more people was great.
Kathy Williams: Exactly. And with not having a drug take-back in 2020, our overall poundage was huge this year.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. When you think of the overall there: 625 people in the two events.
Kathy Williams: Yeah.
Tim Kelly: For a total of 813 pounds and 18 38-gallon containers of sharps.
Kathy Williams: Right.
Tim Kelly: So that is… that’s a lot of stuff.
Kathy Williams: You know, and you just think about it. It’s not getting flushed down the toilet. It’s not getting put in our garbage dumps, you know, it’s, it’s being disposed of properly. And, and so I think that that’s a big testament to Lenawee County. People are wanting to do the right thing. We just got to make sure they know how to do it.
Tim Kelly: That’s right. Give them the place to do it. It really, you know, it does speak well of, of this community and their willingness to get the stuff out of the cabinets and getting it back to some places safe and can be disposed of.
Kathy Williams: Exactly. Now we are going to have another one next April. In April, 2022, but in the meantime, you know, some people prefer not to store things that long. And we’re hoping that they, that they don’t. But if they do, they can bring it to us in April. Where are some other locations though, that they can dispose of their expired medications at this point?
Tim Kelly: Well, there’s a number of law enforcement agencies that will take them. They have what’s called the Red Barrels.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Tim Kelly: I’ll list those for you: Adrian Police Department, Blissfield Police Department, Hudson, the Sheriff’s Department, Morenci’s Police Department, Raisin Township, Tecumseh. You can also take them to Hickman Hospital.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Tim Kelly: As well as now there is a container at Meijer that people can drop things off, but I’d encourage you, you need to check first because they don’t take sharps or things like that.
Kathy Williams: Right.
Tim Kelly: They might be able to be taken back other places.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Tim Kelly: The other thing are Hudson Pharmacy and Schmidt and Sons, they both sell containers for your sharps.
Kathy Williams: Oh, okay.
Tim Kelly: Which is a really important thing. People were questioning that: “Where could they get those types of things?”
Kathy Williams: Well, and we did ask people when they came to the drug take-back to keep their sharps in a separate container when they dropped them off. And so it, it always is a good idea to keep those separate in your home as well. Of course, there are also a lot of people we want to thank for helping to make the October drug take-back such a great event.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. Just to name a few of those.
Kathy Williams: Yeah.
Tim Kelly: It kind of takes a village to do this.
Kathy Williams: It does.
Tim Kelly: The University of Toledo’s College of Pharmacy had students there and they did a lot of the heavy lifting.
Kathy Williams: They did.
Tim Kelly: The County Sheriff’s Department. You know, because this is a DEA event, there has to be law enforcement there and it’s very structured and they, they do make sure things work smoothly, but David Aungst and Jacob Pifer were both out there. So we appreciate their help with it. WLEN obviously; and the people at ProMedica Hospital: Christina Bell and Frank Nagle in particular; and one other person that really, she stays behind the scenes on this a lot, but she does a lot of things, is Madeline DeMarco.
Kathy Williams: Yeah.
Tim Kelly: From Lenawee CMH and if we didn’t have Madeline, I don’t know what I would do.
Kathy Williams: I don’t think we’d be, you or I, would be nearly as organized as we are. Well, and we also had a special feature this year: WQTE, a local country station, was also live at the drug take-back this year. So, you know, like you said, it takes a whole village, and so we tried to get the word out every way we could, and hopefully people were well-informed. If they are looking for additional information though, at this point, they can still go to the drug take-back website.
Tim Kelly: Yup. Drug Prevention Lenawee.
Kathy Williams: Yes.
Tim Kelly: That’s the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition’s website. And, it can direct you to a number of resources that could help you if you’re looking to get rid of some medication.
Kathy Williams: There you go. And, we’ll be drawing a winner. We have over $300 worth of gifts that we’re going to be given away. And actually that drawing happened this morning. So someone’s winning some great prizes just for participating in our sweepstakes.
Tim Kelly: Yeah. Okay. Very good. We appreciate those entities that provided us with things from Suburban Chevrolet, Jiffy…
Kathy Williams: Jiffy Mix, yes.
Tim Kelly: I don’t know what they’re called: Jiffy Corporation, I guess.
Kathy Williams: Yep.
Tim Kelly: And Sweet Boutique also gave us some stuff too, so lots of people.
Kathy Williams: Yeah, and we have Tuckey’s Big Boy in Tecumseh, and also Kapnick Orchard. So, you know, some just, you know, fun things that, we’re hoping to gather some important data on how to reach people a little bit better, so. Well, thank you so much, Tim, for joining me and we hope things stay quiet for a while.
Tim Kelly: Yeah, see you in the spring.
Kathy Williams: Thanks.
Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. 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.
