Operation Safe Return takes unwanted prescription drugs off the streets
By Sharon Haught
November 1, 2011
654
For the second time this year, the MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency joined more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country for Operation Safe Return, a national prescription drug take back initiative aimed at keeping potentially dangerous substances out of the hands of drug abusers and dealers and disposing of them in an environmentally safe way.
At Operation Safe Return sites at the Wayne County Justice Center and Cleveland Clinic Wooster Family Health Center in Wooster and at the Rittman, Orrville and Millersburg police departments on Oct. 29, law enforcement officials collected hundreds of bottles of unneeded and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications.
In an effort to educate the public on the proper storage and disposal of medication, members of the Wooster C.I.R.C.L.E Coalition were also on hand at the event to answer questions and distribute literature on this important topic.
While Operation Safe Return events have been held twice a year for the past several years, members of the community will soon have a way to safely dispose of their unwanted drugs year-round.
According to Pharmaceutical Division Investigator Patricia Bintliff of MEDWAY, in the coming months white boxes that closely resemble street corner mailboxes marked with the Operation Safe Return logo will be installed at the Justice Center and at various city and village police stations throughout the county.
Bintliff noted that in order to ensure complete privacy, community members dropping medications into the Operation Safe Return boxes should remove or black out personal information from medication bottles and boxes.
While most prescription medications will be accepted at the collection boxes, the program is unable to accept hazardous materials, needles, thermometers, IV bags, aerosol cans, personal care products, hydrogen peroxide, business waste or infectious or bloody waste.
A number of the self-service collection boxes were donated to MEDWAY by the C.I.R.C.L.E. Coalition. The remaining boxes are being purchased with grant funding.
For more information on MEDWAY, follow the MEDWAY DEA link on the Wayne County Sheriffs Department website at http://www.waynecountysheriff.com.
