Prescription Drug Misuse Prevention

May

2022

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 show is Tim Kelly and Tim is the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at the LISD and also the chairperson of the Prevention and Education subcommittee for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Tim, two days ago, we had the Drug Take-Back out at Hickman Hospital and we’re going to be reviewing the final figures and such later on this week, but we wanted to talk a little bit about what’s the coalition all about.

Tim Kelly: Okay, yeah. The coalition is a, just a group of community members looking to reduce the amount of substance use in the county. There’s nobody that’s on this that that’s their day job.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: We all have other duties. As you mentioned, you know, I work for the LISD. We have members from Community Mental Health, obviously. We have people in recovery. We have people that are in law enforcement. I mean, it just is all… there is no restriction against who can be a part of that. So, I guess that’s what I would say first is anyone who is interested can go to, you know, DrugFreeLenawee.com and look at joining our groups.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. So within the LSAPC, there’s a lot of different subgroups that kind of do pigeonhole more into what their day projects or their day employment is. Our particular group though, is the Prevention and Education group, and so that’s why we’ve been so involved in the Drug Take-Back.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. The Prevention and Education group is active and communicating. That’s really kind of where our…

Kathy Williams: Which is why Kathy’s in there.

Tim Kelly: Yes, it is. Thank you very much. But yeah, we have these other groups that, ones… there are six groups altogether. And again, you can find that list on our website, but, Work with Prescribers, Work with Physicians, help to support people in recovery. So there’s a lot of different diverse groups.

Kathy Williams: It is a very diverse group.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It looks at all aspects of substance use. You know, it was started a number of years ago when we were looking at the opiate epidemic… epidemic. Sorry, I can’t say that word. And it’s just kind of grown into looking at all aspects of substance abuse.

Kathy Williams: Okay. And I think that we’ve had a really good focus on – where are the different people that are maybe suffering from these problems and are we addressing them where they’re at? Not expecting them all to come to us. It’s – how do we get that message to them?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. And you know, that’s a kind of a big change in the last number of years that you recognize that there are people that we’ve been expecting to come to us, and it’s not always easy for them obviously. And we’re recognizing, being more sensitive to that and recognizing, you know, that there are people that need housing supports. There are people that need childcare supports. Those types of things are where they’re at. You know, they need that type of stuff. And maybe in an older model, we might’ve said: “Oh, pick themselves up and just come to us for treatment,” but it’s more complicated than that.

Kathy Williams: Right. A lot more complicated.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think we take a whole different view now on how people got to the situation that they’re in. That we are a lot more compassionate on, it’s not a necessarily a choice that person has made to become dependent on different substances and alcohol and, you know, so much goes into overall mental health.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. And, you know, as a recent event that they have termed it “substance use disorder,” it’s a change. And I know, you know, my former world was working within child welfare and you know, looking at people as though it’s some type of deficit was quite frequently the way we approached this. And it’s not the case. It’s, you know, it’s very easy to say, but people have a hard time understanding it is frequently just a medical condition.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: It’s something that people, like diabetes or any other type of health issue that they could have.

Kathy Williams: Right. And so, you know, we want to, of course encourage our listeners to become involved in, you know, if nothing else getting more information and educating themselves so that when they’re are exposed to a situation that they might have a better idea of local resources to help either themselves, or, you know, an acquaintance, a family member or whomever. There’s so much help out there and, a good resource is to go to the Drug Prevention Lenawee website.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good place to start. Community Mental Health is also a good place to start. But yeah, educating yourself is probably the biggest thing people can do right now because whether you believe it or not, there’s probably somebody you know, that has experienced some type of substance abuse issue.

Kathy Williams: Oh, for sure.

Tim Kelly: And you know, educate yourself about what they’re going through and what they need to do to get themselves the help they need.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. It all kind of centers around the way that we look at people, the way that we talk to them, and the fact that there is so much information on there, out there. So many people involved that are very compassionate about walking beside people and help them get through their situations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. One of the, you know, again, a recent advent is that we now have peer recovery coaches.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: These are people that have actually experienced substance abuse.

Kathy Williams: Their own crisis, right.

Tim Kelly: Yes. They’ve all lived through it. And you know, those are the best people really to help someone else to know what they’re gonna go through and to help them through all the, actually the medical aspect of it, the social aspect of it, and all those other pieces, like I said: housing, childcare… that’s all a part of what this does to someone is damages all aspects of their lives and somebody who’s experienced it is probably the best equipped to help them through it.

Kathy Williams: Right. Exactly. Well, Tim, we’re going to talk to you again here in a couple of weeks and find out all the facts and figures from the Drug Take-Back that took place on April 30th and we’ll see what happens, but it’s just another way that we can help our community to not have things laying out there that shouldn’t be laying out there for, you know, possible misuse or incorrect disposal. I know there will be another one of those in October, but there’s also places they can drop off things at any time.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Any, any law enforcement agency, you can take things back to there, everything from, you know, again, just like the Drug Take-Back Day: supplements, over the counter medications, prescribed medications, syringes… Those types of things can go back to law enforcement. Some of our pharmacies also provide some types of ability to dispose of things. So, contact your pharmacist. They can tell you if they do things like syringes and needles, or if they can offer you some type of bag, I guess. We call them Deterra bags, but there’s also other brands that do this in which you can dispose of your meds, make them inert by putting them in there and sort of like putting it…

Kathy Williams: Dissolves them.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It just dissolves them, makes them inert. Yeah, they can contact their pharmacist and a lot of pharmacies now have that type of stuff available.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Well, thanks so much, Tim, for talking with me tonight and again, we encourage people to go to the Facebook page. We also have of course the website and if you’re interested in joining the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, we’d love to hear from you.

Tim Kelly: Yes we would, thank you.

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.

Apr

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim is the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at Lenawee Intermediate School District, LISD, but importantly tonight, he is the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition’s chairperson of Prevention and Education. Tim and I are going to be talking about the upcoming Drug Take-Back event. Tim Saturday, April 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. 10:00 to 2:00 at ProMedica Hickman Hospital. Please, yeah, everybody come on out and dispose of those meds. It’s a real simple process. You just drive around back, follow the signs, and someone will direct you on in there. You can even say “hi” to Kathy as you go by. She’s always out there.

Kathy Williams: If you come during the broadcast.

Tim Kelly: During the broadcast, okay. Well, if you do give her some coffee, she’s… it’s kind of cold. She’s standing out there while.

Kathy Williams: Thank you, yes, it does get a little bit cold. So it’s a national event. We had a couple of them last year that were very successful and the Drug Take-Back itself is happening from 10 o’clock, till two o’clock on the 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: If you’ve been to the Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital, you’ve seen the big, giant COVID signs where you go back for your COVID testing, and that is where the Drug Take-Back itself will be happening.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. You don’t even have to get out of your car. They drive you right through the tent that they have there. And there’ll be people there to take your medications or inhalers or liquids…

Kathy Williams: Sharps.

Tim Kelly: Or even syringes. Yeah, sharps. They, they can take all that stuff. The only suggestion I’d have is that if you have stuff in a bottle, you remove your name or identifying information from it, but they’ll take it right in the bottle. These are students at the Pharmacy College down at University of Toledo. They will bag it all up and ship it out of here.

Kathy Williams: I did like watching the procedure last year, too, because there were you know, quite a few people that maybe did not mark out their information. And so it’s, it was interesting to watch the students as they sorted everything for “This is a pill, this is a tablet, this is a liquid…” Even the salves and lotions and stuff. And they were very meticulous at making sure the information was marked out or taken out of the original container. And then I found out that all those containers then were incinerated. So if you don’t get it taken care of, they certainly will when you drop off your drugs.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. This being a national event, you know, it’s basically from the DEA and they make sure that everything is very secure. The Lenawee Sheriff’s office will have a couple of deputies out there to make sure. So yeah, you can be pretty confident that all your information is… can be disposed of correctly.

Kathy Williams: Yes. And you know what, the other thing that I kind of want to be sure people realize is that we’re having this in April. We’re also gonna have one in October. Personally, we had a friend who passed away and her husband didn’t know what to do with all her drugs. She had a rather large container in a… like a Tupperware thing.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And Doug grabbed him and said “My wife will take care of that for you”. So, you know, that’s the kind of thing though, to keep in mind, you know, if you’re emptying out someone else’s house, help them get rid of these things in a good way.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: You can also go on a website, DrugPreventionLenawee.com, and tell us about other disposal sites that you can use throughout the year.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Most law enforcement offices have what’s known as the Red Barrel that people can dispose of stuff anytime during the year. And it is important to get it out of there, get it out of your house. You know, in Lenawee alone, 52% of the people that abused substances got them from a friend or a relative. And a lot of that was maybe taking from a medicine cabinet or finding something that a family member had had prescribed to them somewhere in the house and using it, so…

Kathy Williams: Right, right. And things that are expired. It just amazed me on last year’s Drug Take-Backs, how many people had expired medications. You don’t save it for the next ear infection because you need new stuff by then.

Tim Kelly: No. Right.

Kathy Williams: So, you know, eardrops, eyedrops, even pet medications can all be disposed of at the Drug Take-Backs. It’s… Make a quick sweep of your house, put it all in a big bag and bring it out to us on Saturday the 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. That… We’d really appreciate it. And then if you can’t, you can take it to those other locations throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. Now some… I believe on the, DrugPreventionLenawee.com website and Facebook, it also tells, you know, some of the restrictions that might be involved with some of those other locations throughout the year. Sharps may be one of the things that this is the best way to get rid of those.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. There are restrictions at places like Meijer that do return some things, but, sharps – a number of pharmacies will sell you a container for sharps.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: If you need one throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: Also people don’t necessarily think about over the counter medication. That also can be brought. It’s amazing how many expired vitamins we might even have or food supplements, you know, all kinds of things like that. So it, you know, our goal tonight is to kind of put that bug in people’s heads, take a look around, get rid of it. Be happy with the empty spaces in your cupboards maybe.

Tim Kelly: Fill them up with something new, but don’t, just don’t flush them down the toilets or throw them down the garbage disposal.

Kathy Williams: Please don’t.

Tim Kelly: Those types of things end up in the drinking water.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: They literally soak into the earth.

Kathy Williams: Long-term they… everything is affected.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Tim, other ways that they can find out information about the Drug Take-Back?

Tim Kelly: You already mentioned it, but the primary way’s through DrugPreventionLenawee.com, or through links on WLEN – on their webpage. So, yeah, those are probably the two prominent ways, but again, throughout the year, contacting law enforcement is a real solid way to figure out where you can drop-off stuff.

Kathy Williams: Alrighty. Well, thanks Tim. We hope to see a lot of people drive by and drop off their drugs. Saturday, April 30th at the ProMedica Hickman Hospital from 10 o’clock to two o’clock. Thanks for being with me.

Tim Kelly: Thank you.

Nov

2021

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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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

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!