Community Drug Disposal Day will be held this Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at McMinnville Police Department. Prescription and over-the-counter medications will be accepted anonymously and destroyed.
“It’s that time again,” said McMinnville Police Investigator Capt. Derwin Adcock, who is in charge of collecting, bagging and sealing the medications.
The Police Department tries to hold two drug disposal days each year to get unused medications/ drugs out of people’s homes to prevent them from finding a new home on the street. Everyone is encouraged to look through their medicine and drop off any that are unwanted, says Adcock.
The event is a joint effort between the department, the Student’s Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Team at the high school, and the District Attorney General’s office of Lisa Zavogiannis.
“We are really excited to offer this again,” said SADD sponsor Lynn Seals. “Taking a medication out of the home is one less available. Prescription drugs are probably the most abused because they are readily available and not locked away.”
Seals says part of the problem is some people never throw anything away.
“I’m just as guilty of it,” she said. “You get it, use part of it and put it away. What happens though is they lose their chemical makeup over time. Mixing them with other drugs is a recipe for disaster. Do yourself and your children a favor and get rid of them.”
Other communities are installing collection boxes at their police departments in an effort to encourage disposal of unused medications. While the boxes provides a safe and anonymous place, there is a cost.
McMinnville Police Department Chief Charlie Sewell says he has heard about the collection boxes and thinks having one would be good for our community.
“I’ll have to look into obtaining a grant to pay for it,” he says. “That will be in the future. Until then, we will continue to offer drug disposal days.”
In order to destroy the medication collected, the district attorney’s office obtains a court order. Once the medications are burned, the court order is filed with the court.