MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown and the surrounding area will be heavily participating in Saturday’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Residents wishing to safely dispose of unused prescription drugs can do so at multiple locations — all three Kroger locations in Monongalia County, the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, and Pierpont Pharmacy.
“You don’t have to sign anything,” Monongalia County Sheriff Perry Palmer said Friday on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “We’ll have officers there. We have boxes set up with liners. Just dump them in the boxes and leave, and you’re good to go.”
The event, now in its ninth year locally but sixteenth year overall, will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in Monongalia County.
“The D.E.A. will come on Monday with their representatives,” Palmer said, “and pick up the drugs and take them to a location where they are destroyed.”
Officers will be specifically stationed in the lobby of the Sheriff’s Department, Pierpont Pharmacy, and the Kroger in the Suncrest Town Centre.
“You wan to do proper disposal,” said Mike Lemasters of Pierpont Pharmacy, “because you could prevent poisoning of children and pets if it ends up in your trash can and a child just decides to get into it. Your pets can get into it. Proper disposal prevents and deters misuse by teenagers and adults.”
Last year law enforcement officials from around the country collected 912,000 pounds — or 456 tons — of unwanted medication.
“It is easy access to come into a residence,” Palmer said. “So the temptation will not be there.”
Lemasters also cautioned residents who think self-disposal is as simple as flushing the medication down the commode.
“The water treatment facilities in our communities are not designed to filter out prescription medications,” he said. “So they end up in the water system and then ultimately end up in our water supply.”
Should you choose to self-dispose, Lemasters recommends using an old laundry detergent jug or any other kind of container that can be sealed, filling it with water, letting the medication dissolve, and then combining what’s left with coffee grounds, cat litter, or a scoop of dirt. That can then be disposed of solid waste, but if you have doubts you can dispose of old medication more than just one day per year.
“Patients can come in and, pretty much year round, bring their unwanted, expired, unused medications,” he said.
Eventually, they dispose of that with the help of the D.E.A.
In Preston County, the hours will also run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Locations available for drop-off of unwanted medication includes Preston County Sheriff’s Office, Terra Alta Town Hall, and Reedsville Town Hall.