[Pharmwaste] Drop box to combat drug use, pollution

[Jeff Hollar]

Here's an interesting article from the Stevens Point Journal in Wisconsin.
Sorry for any cross postings.  The link is:
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20090603/SPJ0101/906030643/1657
<http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20090603/SPJ0101/906030643/1657&
located=RSS> &located=RSS

Drop box to combat drug use, pollution

By Cara Spoto
Journal staff 

Old pharmaceuticals are hard pills for communities to swallow.

Police see the damage leftover narcotics and stimulants cause when they get
into the hands of drug abusers. Solid waste officials see the pills end up
in landfills, leaching chemicals into the environment. And, sewer plant
workers say the all-too-common practice of flushing old pills down the
toilet has caused trace amounts of medications to show up in rivers and
streams.

Officials in Portage County might have found a solution to the problem,
however.

On Monday, the Portage County Space and Properties Committee voted to
approve the placement of a pharmaceuticals drop box at the courthouse.
Installed in the waiting area of the Stevens Point Police dispatch office,
the box will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people to
drop off any unused or expired medications.

Former Portage County Solid Waste Administrator Meleesa Johnson suggested a
permanent drop box be installed after she saw what a huge response her
department had to four medication collection events it sponsored.

"The next logical conclusion was to have something permanent," Johnson said,
adding that she worked with the Stevens Point Police Department to make the
program a reality.

The box is now available and bolted to the ground to prevent theft, but
Stevens Point Police Chief Kevin Ruder said the department is not yet
prepared to accept piles of pills.

"We are in the process of finalizing a policy. We won't turn people away,
but we are not prepared to have a full community drop-off," Ruder said.

A detailed disposal and storage policy for the disposed medications still
must be drafted, but Ruder said the plan is to send the pills -- once they
have collected a substantial amount -- to Illinois to be incinerated. In the
meantime, the pharmaceuticals will be secured in the box or the department's
evidence room, he said.

"I think it's great to have an ongoing program, and it makes sense to have
it at the courthouse," Jeanne Dodge, chairwoman of space and properties
committee, said of the drop box Monday.

Stevens Point Mayor Andrew Halverson, also a member of the committee, said
the city was "extremely excited" about the box.

"The prescription drug abuse that is going on right now, especially amongst
youths, is just rampant," he said, "so this will be at least one way,
hopefully, for us to get it under control."

Ruder agreed.

"We are removing these pharmaceuticals and narcotics from the street
(preventing) possible ingestion by children, for one, and two, any kind of
attempts to sell them for profit," he said.

 

Jeff Hollar

President

 

PharmWaste Technologies, Inc.

4164 NW Urbandale Dr., Suite A

Urbandale, IA 50322

(P) 515-276-5302 Ext. 316

(F) 480-393-5564

(E)  <mailto:Jhollar at Pwaste.com> Jhollar at Pwaste.com

(W) www.pwaste.com

 

 

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