From staff reports
Too often, unused prescription and over the counter (OTC) medications find their way into the wrong hands. This can be dangerous and often tragic.
Unused or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue, leading to potential accidental poisoning, misuse, and overdose.
The study shows that most abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.
Families can take proper steps during COVID-19 to make sure all household medicines are safely secured.
All medications should be stored up and away, out of sight and reach after every use in a high cabinet or drawer where children cannot see it or touch it.
Keep medicine in its original child-resistant packaging and labeling. If you or another family member do choose to use a pill organizer to help manage taking medicine, make sure you always store it up and away, and out of sight and reach of children.
Instead of keeping medicine handy, or leaving medications sit out, use safe reminder tools to help you remember when to take the medicine and give doses.
So how do you safely dispose of expired or unwanted medications?
Due to National Prescription Take-Back Day on April 25 being cancelled to COVID-19, there are four permanent prescription take-back boxes located throughout Clarion County for the public.
The boxes will provide a unified opportunity for the public to surrender expired, unwanted, or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications to law enforcement officers for destruction.
Controlled, non-controlled, and over-the-counter medications will be accepted in the form of capsule, pill, tablet, liquid, or cream. Sharpies and syringes will not be accepted due to the potential hazard posed by blood-borne pathogens.
Participants are encouraged to remove or scratch out any personal information from bottles or packages that contain pills/capsules and liquids and place the bottles or packages into the disposal box.
This take-back program is anonymous, and all efforts should be made to protect the anonymity of individuals disposing of medications. No questions or requests for identification will be made by law enforcement personnel present.
Call Armstrong Indiana Clarion Drug & Alcohol Commission at (814) 226-6350 for further questions, or visit the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) website, www.deatakeback.com.
Clarion County prescription take-back box locations: Clarion Borough Police Department, 1400 East Main Street, Clarion; Knox Borough Police Department, 620 South Main Street, Knox; New Bethlehem Police Department, 220 Broad Street, New Bethlehem; and the state police barracks at 209 Commerce Road in Monroe Township.