Drug Take Back Day

Nov

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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 And, you know, just things that are outdated.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.

Oct

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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

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!

May

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Show the Trascript.

Kathy Williams: With me tonight on the program as Tim Kelly. And he is with the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. It’s quite a mouthful.

Tim Kelly: Yes, it is.

Kathy Williams: Tim, we want to give our listeners an update on how wonderful the drug take back event went that happened on Saturday, the 24th out at ProMedica Hickman Hospital. What a turnout.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, it was quite amazing. I know it was a little bit of a drizzly day, but a little gray, but it seemed like a great turnout. Close to 300 people came out and dropped off some prescriptions.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. And we got darn close to hitting that 500 pounds. So I was really excited about that.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, they had 250 pounds of tablets and capsules, 180 plus pounds of bottled medicine or topical products. So those two numbers are just fantastic.

Kathy Williams: They are. And, you know, we we talked during the broadcast about different locations that people can drop off their drugs on a regular basis and they can get that information online at DrugPreventionLenawee.com. But during the drug take back, it was the only time they were able to do liquids.

Tim Kelly: Mhhm, Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And so that was kind of important that. Sharps and syringes were also accepted and those are not generally accepted at the red barrels or the other Drop-Off locations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, yeah. The only place I know of that can actually take those right now is is at the hospital. So if people need to drop those off, they can bring them to the hospital to drop off there.

Kathy Williams: There you go. I know from talking to Jennifer, the head pharmacist, she shared that she even got some old-school syringes that were metal.

Tim Kelly: Oh, wow.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, they were very old. So, you know, I think it’d be nice to remind everyone that we’re going to be doing another one in October.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, in October we will have our second one. It will be the same process as this one where you drive in to ProMedica and drop off whatever it is you need to drop off.

Kathy Williams: You know, there was concern too with did they have to keep it in the original containers? Did they have to mark out their personal information? I loved watching the pharmacy volunteers that were there. They sorted out the drugs between pills, capsules and everything else. And then they took care of marking out any personal information and making sure that that you were protected.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, they they did a great job. We had the students from University of Michigan and the University of Toledo. And so, yeah, Jennifer did a great job with them and having them sort things. So you don’t have to have it in the containers. They’ll take it whatever way you need to bring it in. Just bring it in and they’ll sort through it and dispose of it properly.

Kathy Williams: Well, we can also share, of course, that you know, the highlight. Of course, we try to focus on opioids and, you know, illegal drugs. But a lot of people have just basic things in their cupboards that they need to get rid of. I personally found vitamins that expired in 2012. I was like, OK, that’s a little old. But but it seems like a lot of the people that stopped by were in similar situations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. There’s, there’s lots of things you didn’t really realize in your cupboards that are, you know, supplements, your pet medical medications, those things expire and they should be disposed of properly. Dumping them out or flushing them down the toilet is not good for the environment. So we need to keep trying to get these things to the proper places, whether it be on these drug take back days or at the red barrels at the law enforcement.

Kathy Williams: There you go, Tim. I know you’ve got some people we’d like to thank for helping us with the drug take back day. Who have you got there?

Tim Kelly: Ok, well, first of all, there’s the people the day off. You know, those people were out there and drizzly a little bit of rain and and doing a great job. First, there was you, Kathy and and John, we really appreciate the the work you guys did. But those students from Toledo and and the University of Michigan, Jennifer Foss herself, and can’t forget the two sheriff’s deputies are out there, Jacob Pifer and and David Aungst. I hope I pronounce that right. So we want to appreciate them for what they’ve done. But we also have, you know, those those entities that did help us like Comfort Keepers, the sheriff’s department, the health department. WLEN, Lenawee Community Mental Health, Charlotte Stephenson Manor. The Department of Health and Human Services, and Hospice of Lenawee.

Kathy Williams: So we did give away 100 goodie bags that were ready that had all of the items that we ended up going through another 150 bags and ran out. So, you know, we encourage people if you’re out there and you’d like to put something in the goody bag for October, please get ahold of us.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, please do. We had some volunteers from hospice, put those together for us. And we were really surprised and happily surprised that we gave away over 100 of them. And so, yeah, if people have anything, just they can reach out to through the website, the Substance Abuse Coalition, and we could take your your items and put them in goodie bags to give out to people in the fall.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Well, thanks so much, Tim, and we appreciate all the work that you put into this drug. Take back day. And we look forward to another successful one in October.

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.

Apr

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Show the Transcript.

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.