CLINTON —
Area organizations are pairing with the Drug Enforcement Administration to encourage people to clean out their medicine cabinets.
For the fifth year in a row, a Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet day will be held in Clinton County. Gateway ImpACT Coalition Coordinator Kristin Huisenga revealed that more than 2,100 pounds of medication has been collected in the county because of these events.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Clinton County residents can drop off their old prescription and over-the-counter medications for free at four designated drop-off points. Medication can be brought to: Ashford University Field, 537 Ballpark Drive; Camanche Police Department, 819 S. Washington Blvd., Camanche; City Maintenance Garage, 11th Street and First Avenue in DeWitt; St. Paul United Church of Christ, 315 Main St. North, Wheatland.
Law enforcement officers will collect the medication.
This year the Clinton County event coincides with the DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Once the medications are collected from each location, they will be picked up for disposal by DEA representatives.
Every day 2,000 teenagers in this country use a prescription drug to get high for the first time, Huisenga said.
“It’s pretty startling,” Huisenga said.
Huisenga added that when a person has old medicine in their cabinet, they are less likely to know it has been stolen by someone else. She said people need to get rid of medication they do not need, instead of holding on to it forever.
Huisenga cautioned people that it is not always strangers who steal a person’s prescription medication. She said that 67 to 70 percent of those who abuse prescription medication get it from their own medicine cabinet.
“If it’s out of people’s homes, then there’s no reason for anybody to want it,” Supervisor Jill Davisson said at the Clinton County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday.
Prescription medication abuse is only one reason to dispose of old medications. Keeping old medication can lead to people becoming confused and mismedicating and the accidental poisoning of children and pets. According to the coalition, improper disposal pollutes waterways and groundwater.
Huisenga said it can be easy for seniors to get confused if they have more medicine bottles than pills they are required to take.
Clinton County Area Solid Waste Agency Director of Operations and Education Brad Seward feels the program is important in keeping the components of medicine from interacting with other contaminates from household trash and creating a leachate problem. Seward felt a small amount of prescription medications would probably not cause too much trouble.
However, he felt it is important for people to remember that anything they put in the trash can interact with anything in other people’s trash.
“It’s a great service that they offer just through their volunteerism and organizing this type of event,” Seward said.
While the coalition is working to get permanent drop-off boxes in Clinton, Huisenga feels this is a good yearly event to get medicine cabinets cleaned out. The drop-off is a drive-through event that takes a few minutes. Sharps will not be taken.
However, medication can be brought in their pill bottles.
“We'll take them however they bring them to us,” Huisenga said. “We don’t ask many questions. We just take their medication.”
Lifestyles
Residents encouraged to clean out cabinets
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