Radio - United for Prevention & Recovery Lenawee

Dec

2021

WLEN Interview with Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition Coordinator Madeline DeMarco

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

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: I’m Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Madeline DeMarco, and Madeline is with the Lenawee Community Health Authority as well as the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Madeline and I are going to talk about issues of the holidays that have to do with safe holiday driving. This is an interesting topic.

Madeline DeMarco: Thanks for having me, Kathy. It’s good to be here. And we’re here to talk about the holiday season and the roads because the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is working with the U.S Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to really raise awareness around safe driving habits to help keep impaired drivers off the road. We know that the end of the year can bring about, you know, lots of merriment with the holiday season. And we want to make sure that Americans are safe on the roads as we’re traveling to and from our holiday get-togethers and vacation destinations, and really just remind people that if you plan to go out and those plans include alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs in your celebrations that you don’t drive.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Have a DD. You know, I think sometimes people don’t realize how much effect, you know, just a small amount of marijuana even, or a small amount of alcohol plays into their reaction times with driving, especially when you pull in it the effect of winter road situations and things like that. And just the slightest hesitation can be the difference between an accident or safe driving.

Madeline DeMarco: Even if you only have one drink or just a small bit of something and you don’t think that you’re impaired, we actually know that even just that small amount, like you said, can affect those important mental skills that we need for driving, like your reaction time and your critical thinking. And so even if you think you’re okay, if you’ve been consuming at all, it’s really not safe for you to get behind the wheel. And especially this time of year, when we have more drivers on the roads than ever, it’s really just an accident waiting to happen. Quite literally.

Kathy Williams: It really is. And you know, we need to look out for each other and maybe somebody takes a time out and the other person has their holiday cheer, so to speak. But you have to think about all the rest of the people that are dominoes like that are affected by one of your bad decisions. It’s not just you, it’s all the other people that are impacted by a crash or you know, the other people that are in their car that could be hurt.

Madeline DeMarco: Yeah. We know that in the U.S. during the holiday season, one person is killed every 52 minutes. So that’s more than one person every hour due to some sort of drunk driving-related crash. And that’s not just necessarily the driver. That can be passengers, that can be pedestrians, that can be people in the other cars. And so we really need to look out for our friends and family and keep our community safe.

Kathy Williams: Yes, exactly. Because, you know, we’ve talked before about mental health issues, but if you’re that driver the amount of guilt and devastation that you’ve put on other people in your community is forever.

Madeline DeMarco: Yeah. And there are some real financial impacts as well of getting in, you know, a drunk driving incident. You know, if you get a DUI that can set you back more than $10,000 in addition to other, you know, insurance, settlements and things. And you could potentially do jail time, you could lose your driver’s license… I mean, those are not things you want to talk about at the holiday table with your loved ones.

Kathy Williams: No, and even lose your job in many instances!

Madeline DeMarco: Exactly.

Kathy Williams: So, you know, let’s, let’s celebrate with a plan then. So, you know, give our listeners an idea of some different things to help them with planning ahead.

Madeline DeMarco: The biggest thing is really that if you’re planning to head out for any sort of holiday festivity to make sure, like you said, that you have a plan for a safe ride home. So, if you’re planning on using any substances like alcohol or marijuana, that you are not the one driving, that you have a sober driver that can take you home. And if you don’t have a sober driver, we have some other options in our community. Things like the Ride Lenawee shuttle can be a great option – that runs between downtown Adrian and Tecumseh on weekend evenings. And we really encourage folks too, that if it’s your turn to be the designated driver, to take your role, seriously: your friends and family are counting on you to get everybody home safely. And again, like we’ve said, even just one drink can be too many. If you’re the driver, it’s just not worth the risk.

Kathy Williams: You know, and at the same time, you have to be keeping an eye out for other drivers who may be driving impaired. And I know it’s uncomfortable maybe to let authorities know, but if you spot someone who’s really driving impaired, you need to notify someone.

Madeline DeMarco: Yes. You can call your local law enforcement if you’re driving on the roads and you see someone that you might suspect is driving under the influence. But even before then, you can take action too. If you’re at a gathering and you notice someone’s about to get in their car and maybe, you know, they’re not walking so straight, it doesn’t seem like a good idea, say something and take those keys away. That person might be upset in the moment, but they’ll thank you in the morning. Trust me.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. So, Madeline, some other ways that they can learn more information is of course, is the Facebook page: LenaweeVsAddiction and the website.

Madeline DeMarco: Yes. The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition also has a website. It’s www.Drug PreventionLenawee.com. So, you can access either that or our Facebook page for more information. We’ll be sharing some tips for keeping our roads safe this holiday season all month long.

Kathy Williams: We want everyone to have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year, but let’s drive safely.

Madeline DeMarco: Absolutely.

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.

Dec

2021

WLEN Interview with Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition Coordinator Madeline DeMarco

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Madeline DeMarco, and she’s with Lenawee Community Mental Health along with the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

Madeline DeMarco: Perfect.

Kathy Williams: And we’re going to talk about, you know, special things that kind of happen a little bit stronger over the holidays with our mental health. Last year and a half’s been hard, a lot more people have had, you know, more issues than usual. And yet, there is an uptick of problems during the holidays. Madeline, let’s just talk about how we can see differences in ourselves and in others that will show us that there may be some depression issues going on. So, what kind of signs should we look for?

Madeline DeMarco: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Kathy, I’m happy to be here. Like you mentioned, the holiday season is kind of known for being this joyful time for many of us, but like you were saying, especially during the past year and a half, it’s been tough. Many of us have lost folks and without our normal support systems, we’ve been seeing an increase in mental health, increase in rates of suicide and depression, things like that, and that’s especially true for those of us recovering from a substance use disorder. And so we’re really here to talk about this and the importance of mental health and remind folks that help is available, you’re not alone in these feelings, and to help raise awareness of some of the signs and symptoms that you can look out for in your friends and family, and even in yourself so that you know how to help offer the support that folks need. So like you were asking, some of the signs of depression that we can look out for are things like irritability; difficulty sleeping, or maybe sleeping more than usual – so, changes in your normal sleep patterns; feelings of hopelessness, kind of those holiday blues, if you will, just kind of feeling down, not yourself; as well as difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions: really looking out for things that are out of the ordinary for yourself or for your loved ones.

Kathy Williams: And self-talk becomes so important to be able to say: “Wait a minute, this is not how I usually function. What is going on?” and then being able to understand that there is so much help out there. And so, stopping that hesitancy to ask for help, I think is a big thing for a lot of people, especially like you said, if they’re already dealing with a substance abuse issue. Where do we channel that? Where do we direct people?

Madeline DeMarco: So, there’s a ton of resources nationally, and even here in Lenawee County. And so a good first place to reach out to is Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority. We have our normal, you know, kind of 8:30 to 5:00 business hours, but we also have a crisis line that’s available 24/7 – so, every day, all day. And you can reach that number by calling (800) 664-5005. And there’s also a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. So if you, or someone that you know, is having suicidal thoughts, you can call this number to get connected with someone that can offer some supports. And that number is (800) 273-TALK, also 1-(800) 273-8255.

Kathy Williams: Well so, you know, some things that we can do for ourselves or to help our family members and friends with the courses to make some physical, emotional, and mental health, a priority in our own lives. And what are some great ideas to help us tip the scales maybe?

Madeline DeMarco: Yeah, so there’s some really great things that you can do just in your own everyday life to make sure that you’re setting yourself up to be as healthy as you can be, just like we do with our physical health, and a lot of these things are similar. So, you know, eating healthy, making sure that you’re getting healthy foods and not just eating Christmas cookies at this time of year.

Kathy Williams: Yep.

Madeline DeMarco: Making sure that you’re getting enough sleep; making sure that you’re taking the time to relax and do things you enjoy. This can be a hard time of year because there’s so many things going on. So many holiday parties and gatherings and events, and we feel like we want to do all of them, but it’s really okay to say “no” and take a break because always being on the go can be tough if we don’t make time to listen to our bodies and take care of ourselves,

Kathy Williams: Take that down time. It’s precious.

Madeline DeMarco: Yes, as well as those breaks from social media and the news. We know that those things aren’t always great for our mental health as well. So instead of maybe, you know, opening up Facebook or Instagram, try calling a friend that you haven’t talked to in a long time, really connecting with those loved ones.

Kathy Williams: There you go, those are some great ideas. Madeline, we just want to remind people again that they can connect with the Facebook page.

Madeline DeMarco: Correct. Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition has a Facebook page. You can reach us at LenaweeVsAddiction or on our website, which is www.DrugPreventionLenawee.com. And we’ll be featuring some holiday mental health tips throughout the month of December. So you can learn more there.

Kathy Williams: Thanks so much, Madeline.

Madeline DeMarco: Thank you for having me.

Nov

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Show the Transcript

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.

Oct

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: I’m Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly and Tim and I are talking again about the Prevention and Education subcommittee, part of Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, and Tim, we want to continue our discussion we had on October 4th about the Drug Take-Back Day that is going to be held October 23rd at ProMedica Hickman Hospital. You know, in April we said we had collected a significant amount of things that should not be in our homes or offices or our vehicles anymore. Or our barns, garages… You know, I mean, wherever we happen to stash things there, and then we forget about them. It’s a good way to just do a little quick clean-up.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. The people kind of put things in places like your nightstands or even in your car and you forget about them. And this is the opportunity to, to collect them all up, you know, and it’s, it’s not just pills. It’s pills, it’s inhalers, it’s maybe ointments or topical things that you had, or the needles that you may have used for some type of injections that you or a person you care about may have had to have at one time. All those things can be brought out there on the 23rd and, and disposed of.

Kathy Williams: Well, and you know, we’ve talked before about that you know, getting rid of these things, of course helps protect your other family members and, and things like that. But the teenage statistic really surprised me.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. You know, recently we did something that’s called the MiPHY. It’s a survey of students at schools, 9^th and 11th graders. In that survey, 7% of the kids identified that they had taken prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them. And usually that’s through, you know, taking them out of somebody’s cupboard or, or getting them somehow through a family member’s prescription.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So yeah, the 7% is a lot.

Kathy Williams: That and I, yeah, that one really shocked me.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: So, if that’s going on, you know, how many of the adults are also swapping out things that they shouldn’t be swapping out and it, and they may not even, you know, of course they’re not doing it intentionally to hurt anyone, but you don’t know what other people’s physical conditions are, how medications might mix incorrectly. And, you know, even over the counter drugs can be dangerous.

Tim Kelly: Right. The interactions between the drugs, obviously you want to ask your doctors, which ones work together and which don’t, but sometimes these expired drugs can be harmful to you as well if you try to mix them with something. So please dispose of them, contact a physician to find out the correct way to use them.

Kathy Williams: And it there are people listening that have questions on what kind of things they can bring, they can go to the DrugPreventionLenawee.com website, there’s lists there. I believe there’s even lists there of other places that they could take their disposable prescriptions and such on a regular basis. Of course, we want them to come October 23rd to our big Drug Take-Back event.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Those, that day is a really good day for us to, you know, call attention to it and have it all brought in at one time and hopefully beat a record of our previous amounts that we’ve collected before. But really, throughout the year you should dispose of things when they become expired or they could become dangerous, but you can contact your law enforcement agencies in your community and they can direct you to a disposal site for any meds.

Kathy Williams: But we’re making this super simple.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Because all they have to do is drive through. They don’t even have to get out of their car.

Tim Kelly: Right.

Kathy Williams: They’re going to give them a goodie bag that’s going to have some cool things in it.

Tim Kelly: Yes.

Kathy Williams: They’ll have a chance to sign up for a little contest on WLEN’s website: just a short little survey to win some prizes and…

Tim Kelly: Yeah, that WLEN website that we encourage people to go there and do that quick survey just to let us know, you know, how things are, are going or what issues people have with the medication disposal. And I think last time a person won a $200 gift basket.

Kathy Williams: They did.

Tim Kelly: So there could be something really good out there for you.

Kathy Williams: Very wonderful prizes. You can also go on the WLEN website and there is a banner ad about the Drug Take-Back event that links you to appropriate information that you might need.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. And the other thing that is going to be available is some stuff through Facebook. Look for some maybe some live feeds from that Drug Prevention Lenawee site, and you can do things like Snapchat filters, things I’m not really good at but something…

Kathy Williams: Huge media presence.

Tim Kelly: Yes.

Kathy Williams: So yeah, we definitely want to encourage people: find out more about it, talk to your friends and neighbors, and it’s you know, it’s just a great community-type process.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It really, you know, back in April when we did it, we had 500 pounds of drugs taken back that day. I think as a community we can beat that. We can, we can get more. It was a little rainy day that day. And, regardless, we can beat that. You don’t have to get out of the car.

Kathy Williams: Exactly.

Tim Kelly: That’s huge. Just drive through, hand it off. There’s people from the pharmacy school at Toledo that’s going to be right there to take stuff from you.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think another important thing to make sure people realize is you can bring it in the original container. They are so good at making sure all your personal information is wiped out. They, you know, all of the pill dispensers and things like that. Anything that might have your name on it gets burned. I mean, it’s incinerated, it’s all overseen by the Sheriff’s department. So nothing walks away and I was amazed at how secure all of that part of the process went.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. There’s deputies onsite that are supervising things and they will give you Deterra bags. If you, if you don’t know what that is, it’s a bag that will… you can use when you’re at home to dissolve medicines and just dispose of them right in your regular trash. So those will be available there.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, we want to stop people from flushing things down the toilets, because that used to be the go-to. And so part of this is about protecting our environment.

Tim Kelly: Yes.

Kathy Williams: Whether it’s under the soil or people we’re looking at, so we want to protect them all.

Tim Kelly: Right.

Kathy Williams: Well, Tim, thanks so much for talking to us again. We hope that our listeners will participate in the Drug Take-Back event. Again, it is at ProMedica Hickman Hospital, October 23rd, from 10 until 2.

Tim Kelly: Thank you.

Kathy Williams: You’re welcome.

Oct

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: I’m Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. And Tim works at the LISD, but tonight he’s wearing his Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition hat. He is the Prevention and Education subcommittee chair. Tim, we’re going to be talking about the October 23rd Drug Take-Back event.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Hopefully everybody can come join us on that day out at ProMedica Hickman Hospital.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. We’re going to be there that Saturday from 8:30… Well, the remote’s from 8:30 to noon, but the drop-off is actually from 10 o’clock to two o’clock I believe.

Tim Kelly: Yes. 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock around back of the building. Just follow the signs.

Kathy Williams: Back where they do the COVID test.

Tim Kelly: Right.

Kathy Williams: Tim, you know, we want to kind of give people an idea of how to gear up for this. We had a great turnout in April, and have you started looking for where all your drugs are hidden in your house?

Tim Kelly: Yeah, and unfortunately I’ve had to look for them lately. I had a little bit of a cold and quite frankly, had to search in a number of places. You know, you go in your bathroom – that seems pretty natural.

Kathy Williams: Yep.

Tim Kelly: But you know, in the vanity… I think I found some pills in my linen closet that were definitely expired. But also kitchen cabinets or in your glove box of your car are all pretty common places people keep their, their meds.

Kathy Williams: Well, yeah. And, and as women who never survive with only one handbag, so…

Tim Kelly: Oh yeah.

Kathy Williams: I know last time I went through probably three different purses, I found, you know, just a lot of allergy medications in those that who knows how long they had been there. So it, you know, that’s, that’s one of the things that we’d like people to get going with now, because they’ve got plenty of time. Look through those cupboards, look through those drawers, and you know, help other people gather their drugs that have been outdated or, you know, aren’t being used anymore. Help them get those together.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Go to grandma’s house.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: If you get an aunt or somebody can help them to go through those, because there are many that you just really don’t realize have expired.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: And those can be pretty dangerous to mix with other meds or, or ineffective at the, at the best, you know, they, they just don’t work any longer. So, need to get those out of there.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. And you know, and it’s not just prescription things. It’s vitamins even. Last time for April, I couldn’t believe how many supplements I had bought, you know, years ago when you’re going to go on some crazy diet and then you didn’t do it after two weeks. And so all those supplements were still left. Those can be brought to the Drug Take-Back as well.

Tim Kelly: Yes they can, as well as the, the ointments or topical things that people put on rashes or things like that.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: Inhalers: those things, you just don’t think are medicine per se, but they are.

Kathy Williams: They are.

Tim Kelly: So they, and they expire and you can bring them out there on that day and dispose of them.

Kathy Williams: You know, and we’re coming into “flu season”. How many people have old cough medicine that they should not be saving for this season? They should be refreshing those things.

Tim Kelly: Absolutely. Those things, and those can actually be harmful to keep around.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So yeah, definitely we’ll be able to take those back on Drug Take-Back Day. Sharps as well, any needles. We know that last April, we had a lot of those returned and, and those are, you know, something are kind of hard to get rid of typically, but on the 23rd, we’ll be able to take any of those back too.

Kathy Williams: Something else that we didn’t, I don’t know that we got a lot of, but veterinary medications. You know, pills that you’ve got for your, for your pet, that, you know, you ended up changing, you know, same thing with humans – you ended up changing the medication halfway through because one thing wasn’t working. So you got something else… So those are probably laying around somewhere too…

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Like maybe in the garage or, you know, in a little cubby somewhere.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Thanks for reminding me of that. I do, I do have some dog medicines that I need to get rid of that are right outside the garage. Yep, good.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. And you know, maybe if you have a vet that you deal with, you could, you know, remind your veterinarian that this we’d love taking those expired drugs from the vet clinics as well.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Great. Yeah, we can do that.

Kathy Williams: So. It’s just a, it’s just a good way of course, to get rid of things you shouldn’t have, clean up those cupboards and you’ll find all kinds of great usable space.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And you know, help protect yourselves, your family, and the environment at the same time.

Tim Kelly: Yes, absolutely. We, we really look forward to people coming out on the 23rd and, and bringing any and everything they can find it. You know, you mentioned supplements and vitamins. Those things are, are things we just do leave, sit thinking “they’re always going to be good” and they do expire just like anything else.

Kathy Williams: They do. So again, the Drug Take-Back Day this October is on October 23rd. It’s at ProMedica Hickman Hospital. And we look forward to seeing a lot of people there. And a lot of interesting donations. All right, thanks Tim.

Tim Kelly: Thank you!