Medication Take-Back Day at ELCH
5/10/2010

East Liverpool City Hospital and the East Liverpool Police Department are joining forces to sponsor a “Medication Take-Back Day” on May 15. The effort aims to encourage area residents to clean out their medicine cabinets and dispose of all expired, unneeded and/or unused prescription and over-the-counter medications. The one-day event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Law enforcement officers from the ELPD will collect the medications at the main entrance of the hospital, in a secure, legal and environmentally conscious manner – no questions asked. Following the collection, the items will be delivered to Heritage-WTI and destroyed according to strict state and federal regulations. This event is for residential/household medications only and medications will only be accepted between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. that day. Items cannot, and will not, be accepted for disposal before or after these times. Individuals dropping off medications will be surveyed to collect basic demographic information. The survey questions will ask for each person’s zip code, how he or she learned of the event, and the general purpose of the medications being collected. No one will be asked to provide a name, address, telephone number or to tell how the medications were acquired. Medications can be in pill, capsule and liquid form. They can include antibiotics and antidepressants; medications for anxiety, attention deficit, cholesterol lowering, heart, blood pressure, pain, diabetes, vitamins, cough syrups, and even veterinary medications. The medication containers (pill bottles, jars, tubes, etc.) will also be destroyed and disposed of properly. This is the first time for such an event locally, but similar collections are becoming more common across the country. “The Medication Take-Back Day is a great opportunity to eliminate unwanted, unused or unneeded medications from residential medicine cabinets before they are abused or misused,” noted Tina Smith, communications coordinator at ELCH. “It also keeps these items from becoming part of the waste stream.” According to the Ohio Department of Health, nearly 27 percent of high school students reported using a prescription drug without a doctor’s prescription and, everyday, about 2,500 teenagers use a prescription drug to get high for the first time. In Ohio, more people die from unintentional medication poisoning than from motor vehicle crashes and suicide, and 96 percent of unintentional poisoning deaths in Ohio are from drugs and medications. Other area law enforcement agencies will join the ELPD in collecting the medications, including Liverpool Township Police, Columbiana County Sheriff’s Department, St. Clair Township Police, Wellsville Police and Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. Officials at ELCH also are working with the Ohio Department of Health, the Ohio Drug Enforcement Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency to make certain that all mandates and regulations are followed. As Smith noted, there are two primary reasons a medication take-back program is important for the community. First, it helps address the issue of prescription drug abuse/misuse, and, secondly, it helps keep medications out of water supplies and landfills. “For years, we were advised to flush unused medications down the drain or toilet Now we know that a vast array of pharmaceuticals are being found in drinking water supplies and in aquifers deep underground,” she said. “By properly destroying them, we eliminate that potential.” And, everyday, nearly 2,500 teenagers use prescription drugs to get high for the first time. Local law enforcement personnel report a growing problem with people of all ages abusing prescription medications. Most often, these drugs are taken from household medicine cabinets. A growing and disturbing trend among high school students are “pharm parties,” where teenagers take pills from their households, add them to other pills and make a mix of multi-colored pills. Partygoers then randomly choose pills to swallow, not knowing what the medications are or how their bodies will respond. Older people are prone to accidental poisoning because of the increased use of prescription medications for pain management and from drug interactions. More ailments are being treated with medications, meaning more medications are ending up in household medicine cabinets, increasing the potential for accidental poisonings. “We believe we have a responsibility to help address these issues in our community,” Smith said. “The cooperation and willingness of local police and sheriff departments proves that the concern is real and the issue is serious. This is the first time for us planning a medication take-back, but we are hoping for a big turnout. We must get these medications off the streets and out of the waste stream.”