Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me for Community Conversation tonight is Martha Hall, she is the Health Officer with the Lenawee County Health Department, and Lenawee County Sheriff Troy Bevier. Welcome to both of you!
Sheriff Bevier: Thank you for having us.
Martha Hall: Yes, thank you very much, Kathy.
Kathy Williams: You’re very welcome. So, we’re going to talk about one of the important things that isn’t necessarily top-of-mind for everyone. But, the safe disposal of prescription drugs. You know, everything is so easily accessible and we are always concerned about family members and of course, people taking illegal drugs as well. But we want to talk about, you know, what’s happening in our community. Troy, you want to kick things off?
Sheriff Bevier: I absolutely would love to kick things off. So, interestingly, I do get quite a few questions when I’m out in the community about this. People, word has gotten out that the Sheriff’s Office is one of the many locations in Lenawee County that offers the Big Red Barrel. Where you can bring in unused or used prescription drugs and you can drop them off in our Big Red Barrel and we will then safely dispose of it. So that along with our Drug Take-Back Day is huge for the community to give them a place to take those drugs to keep them out of hands of family members who may abuse them and out of hands of little children and things like that. We’re very glad to be able to provide that service and we’ll continue to do so.
Kathy Williams: And, Martha, are there other opportunities, other locations, for drug disposal?
Martha Hall: There actually, there are several other opportunities for disposal here in Lenawee County. At several of our police departments throughout the county. So, Adrian Police Department, Blissfield, Hudson, Morenci, Raisin Township, Hudson. So those are some other locations where we have the Big Red Barrels. And then additionally, ProMedica has the MedSafe kiosk which is located in their emergency department.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Martha Hall: So we have several opportunities here in Lenawee County to be able to dispose of drugs on a regular basis. And then of course the opportunity that we have taking place on April 24th is yet another opportunity for us to be able to dispose of those unwanted or unused medications. And to be able to dispose of some items that we can’t normally dispose of through the Big Red Barrel program.
Kathy Williams: Well, and I know some people think “oh, it’s just the hardcore drugs that I need to take care of properly,” but it’s really everything, any kind of medication, including those for your pets. We’re trying to keep them out of landfills, trying to keep them out of… don’t flush them down the toilet anymore, keep them out of the water systems and such. It might seem like a small thing, but when everybody’s doing it, it becomes a big thing.
Martha Hall: Yeah, very true. You know, so in addition to the fact that we want to be able to keep drugs out of the hands of individuals that they were not prescribed for, we also want to protect our environment. So, you know, doing proper disposal is really key.
Kathy Williams: Yep, yeah. Troy, you’ve probably been involved in Drug Take-Backs in the past. What kind of response do you usually get for those?
Sheriff Bevier: You know, we at the Sheriff’s Office have been involved in this for many many years in combination with ProMedica. We go way back. And I was talking to the under-sheriff, and he’s been involved in it for many many years and teaming up with DEA because the drugs have to go somewhere safely so we have a partnership with the DEA to get rid of those. Yeah, and you talk about a big problem: last year, unfortunately with COVID we did not have a Drug Take-Back so we’ve got to believe that there are quite a bit of drugs out there that people want to get rid of and dispose of safely. Going way back, so we pulled a little bit of information and in 2017 there was 483 pounds of drugs that were disposed of safely through the Drug Take-Back system: Drug Take-Back Day. The following year it wasn’t quite so big, it was 380 lbs, it kinda went down. So that might tell us that people are disposing of their unused, unwanted drugs. It was 300 lbs in 2019 and we know last year there were none. So we’re looking forward to a big year this year to make sure that we get rid of that again to help the environment and keep everyone safe.
Kathy Williams: Martha, can you explain to our listeners what they need to do as far as bringing their drugs to a take-back or to a disposal site?
Martha Hall: Certainly. So for the Drug Take-Back event that will be on April 24th at the ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital, and that’s located at 5640 North Adrian Highway. Individuals will just follow the signage after they get out to the hospital. They are able to dispose of over-the counter medications, prescription medications, pet medications. All of those will be accepted as well as sharps, medications that are liquids, ointments, and inhalers. Those are things we’re not always able to accept. That’s really something that can happen twice a year when we’re doing these take backs through partnership with ProMedica. Everyone should leave the medications in the original containers if that’s possible and then just mark out their personal information.
Kathy Williams: And I even recall that I did take part in a Drug Take-Back before. And I hadn’t mark out my stuff so they marked it out when I got there. But it does make it easier if you mark it out yourself in advance. Troy, we were talking earlier as part of a committee that our goal this year is 500 lbs.
Sheriff Bevier: That would be a very good goal. I think you might make that. You would definitely break the 483 lbs take-back in 2017. So…
Kathy Williams: Yep. And I know we’re going to be doing some videos and some Facebook Live stuff kinda showing how easy it is to do a drug take-back. But you know, when you have a family member maybe who is in and out of prescriptions, and you have the one now that they can’t take anymore, I mean it helps to put it in a box and save it for a Drug Take-Back, get it out of the way when they’re not narcotics, so to speak. I mean, if they’re narcotics, you want to get rid of them right away. But I have people that have been on different kinds of antibiotics and stuff and then like that one’s not working or we’re going to switch to this, and low-and-behold you have five days left. You know, what do you do with it?
Sheriff Bevier: And expired medication. A lot of times people have expired medication at home, and they just want to know how can they get rid of it safely. So, we here at the Sheriff’s Office see people coming in and bringing in bags of medication and disposing of them in the Big Red Barrels. So, all of this little bit helps. And it helps the environment, it keeps people safe, and it helps to make the community a safer place. So that’s what we’re all about.
Kathy Williams: Exactly, exactly. And it’s an educational thing too. I know there’s lots of information about what they can do. So I know that the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition has DrugPreventionLenawee.com. It’s a great site to go to. They’re also on Facebook too and they’ll have information as far as the Drug Take-Back and different programs that are available for any kind of drugs or alcohol-type issues.
Martha Hall: Yeah, certainly. There’s a wealth of information that is available there at the DrugPreventionLenawee.com and would really encourage individuals to just go there and just learn about some of those opportunities here in Lenawee County to be able to help with prevention in our community. You know, one of the things with the drugs is that individuals tend to hold onto them. You know, somebody gets a prescription, and you know, like you mentioned, maybe it was an antibiotic prescription and they had to try a couple of different ones or they weren’t able to take a prescription for some reason. We don’t want to hold onto those and save them for another time.
Kathy Williams: Right.
Martha Hall: We want to be able to get them out of circulation. You know, either if you’ve got them sitting around right now, let’s get them to this Drug Take Back event on April 24th. And on a regular basis, we have so many opportunities in our communities to be able to get those disposed of. We know as far as opioids, 52% of individuals that misused opioids in Lenawee County indicated that they got them a family member or a friend. So if we have medications that we aren’t using, let’s get them out of circulation. Let’s keep our community safe. And making sure that they’re disposed of properly, again, it protects our environment. Also you know, young children that have the potential to be to you know, get a hold of some medication that they shouldn’t. So I encourage everybody. Take a look at what you’ve got going in your medicine cabinet. If there are items in there that are expired, whether they’re over the counter, whether they’re prescription, if you have things that are expired or you are no longer using that medication, let’s get them to the Drug Take-Back Day and let’s try to meet that 500 lbs. goal. I would love to see that happen.
Kathy Williams: I would too. I would too. And so the Drug Take-Back is on April 24th. It’s a Saturday, it’s going to be going on from 10 o’clock until 2 o’clock. And there’s gonna be goody bags that they’re going to give out that will have some great little tchotchkes in them, and a chance to win a $200 sweepstakes prize too, so if you enter a little sweepstakes. So you know, Sheriff Troy Bevier I appreciate your time today and Martha Hall. Thank you so much for all you’re doing to help get Lenawee County into a better situation and helping with the Drug Take-Back.
Sheriff Bevier: Thank you very much, Kathy and WLEN for being a partner with us, and we appreciate that.
Martha Hall: Yes, thank you very much.
