Record amount of pills collected at event

The Northern Ohio U.S. District Attorney’s Office reports Ohio took in a record haul of unused prescription pills during National Prescription Take Back Day.

“In Ohio, 33,261 pounds of prescription drugs were turned in,” the office reported in a May 10 media release about the April 29 event. “That’s an increase of nearly 18 percent from the previous Take Back Day.”

By comparison, Indiana took in 17,803 pounds. Michigan took in 20,370 pounds. Pennsylvania

took in 37,889 pounds of unused prescription medication and West Virginia took in 4,021 pounds, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Locally, officials said they believe the results obtained during the April 29 initiative show how much of a problem prescription drug abuse has become.

“I think we’re collecting more because more people are aware of it,” said Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson. “People used to keep them or throw them away, which isn’t good. My problem is that, the people who are turning them in are responsible people. But the opioid problem is caused by irresponsible people.”

Coulson went so far as to say that “it’s such a big problem that I don’t think we even know how big it is.”

The Northern Ohio U.S. District Attorney’s Office calls National Prescription Take Back Day an initiative that “addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue.”

“According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.4 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs,” the office’s media release reads. “The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet. The DEA’s Take Back Day events provide an opportunity for Americans to prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths.”

Lake County Chief Deputy Sheriff Frank Leonbruno said he thinks the Take Back Days are helping address the prescription-drug addiction problem.

“I think it’s a great program,” he said. “It’s made a huge impact in terms of the any prescription pills around the house.”

Leonbruno shared an example in which Lake County deputy sheriffs took in five leaf-collection bags full of prescription medication an area elderly man left behind when he died.

“Some of the bottles were empty. Some had a few pills left in them and some hadn’t even been opened,” Leonbruno said. “That’s certainly an outrageous story. But there are individuals with various illnesses that are on four, six, 10 different medications that they take each day and they are around the house.”

He said that, until the Take Back program started, many folks with these medications around the house didn’t know what to do with them and they would often end up disposing of them improperly or worse.

“Now that people know there are these drop-offs, they’re less inclined to selfmedicate, which is really dangerous,” he said, adding that the Lake County Sheriff’s Office has installed a prescription-drug drop-off box in its lobby, which takes in a goodly amount of unused prescriptions weekly.

“Every week to weekand-a-half, when we empty it, we take out enough to fill one of those 13-gallon (kitchen) garbage bags,” he said, adding that, with the sizeable senior-citizen population calling Lake County home, what to do with their various medications is a real issue with which to contend.

The DEA reports the next Prescription Drug Take Back Day is scheduled Oct. 28. For more information, visit www.rxdrugbox.org.

GRAPHIC BY CHERYL SADLER