Chesco drug drop-off box use soars 200 percent

Theamount of legal prescription drugs that Chester County residents have taken from their medicine chests and dropped off at area police stations, county offices, and Paoli Hospital rose almost 200 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to figures released Friday.

In 2015, the second year of the county’s drug disposal drop-box program, 2,967 pounds of prescription medications were collected. In 2016, that figure rose to 8,073 pounds, about a 175 percent increase.

The news was greeted with satisfaction by those involved in the collection process, since it means that residents are taking precautions to get potentially dangerous drugs – including opioid painkillers – out of the reach of familymembers.

“We are protecting both our children and our environment, two goals everybody supports,” said county District Attorney Tom Hogan in a press release about the collection totals.

“Working together, Chester County has taken an aggressive approach to combating the scourge of opioids and heroin,” Hogan said. “As a result, Chester County has the lowest overdose rate in southeastern Pennsylvania. But wemust do more. Every child who dies froman overdose is a tragedy for some family.”

Jeanne Casner, director of the county’s Health Department, echoed Hogan’s statement,

“Chester County is very fortunate to have such a successful medication disposal program through the collaboration of Chester County agencies,” she was quoted as saying. “Many people who misuse prescription drugs get them from friends and family, who may be unaware that their unused prescriptions are missing.

“Ensuring people have safe and known locations for disposing of unused or unwanted prescriptions is a critical element in our broader efforts to reduce access to and misuse of prescriptions, and prevents the prescriptions from ending up in our wastewater treatment facilities and contaminating groundwater,” Casner said.

The drug disposal box program was started in 2014 by the county DA’s Office, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, and a few local police departments. That year, 1,392 pounds of prescription drugs were collected. The program then expanded dramatically, and now includes cooperation between many police departments, Paoli Hospital, the county Health Department, Pennsylvania American Water, the county commissioners, the National Guard, and other volunteer locations.

Jim Paradis, president of Paoli Hospital, where a collection box is located in the lobby and maintained by Willistown police, stated, “We have come a long way from flushing unwanted pills down the drain into the water system. Installing this box won’t completely solve this problem, but it’s one more step in the right direction, and it gives us an opportunity to continue our efforts to combat the opioid crisis in our community.”

Adding his comments was U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6, of West Goshen, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic. “Chester County’s prescription drug disposal boxes are an effective, critical component in working to prevent addiction,” he said in the release. “The strong leadership from the District Attorney’s Office and partnering agencies and organizations, combined with state and federal assistance, is making a positive impact in tackling the opioid epidemic.”

The drug disposal boxes work as follows:

Citizens can drop off prescription drugs or over-thecounter medications in the drug drop boxes. The boxes are secure boxes located in police stations or other safe areas. The drop-offs are anonymous The medication periodically is picked up by members of the Chester County Detectives and disposed of safely by the National Guard.

Police Chief Brenda Bernot of the Westtown/East Goshen Police Department, one of the participating police departments, said that having one of the boxes in the department’s lobby “is a service that our citizens value because of its convenience.

“Our police department also values this service because we recognize that disposing of unwanted, unused, or expired medications in this manner is not only an environmentally friendly method of disposal, but also a foolproof method to ensure that themedications do not end up falling into the hands of children, addicts or criminals,” she said.

According to current statistics, approximately 70 percent of the United States population will take some type of prescription medication every year. The three most prescribed drugs in the United States are antibiotics; antidepressants, and opiates such as oxycodone.

According to the release, in the southeastern Pennsylvania region the largest drug threat currently comes from prescription drugs and heroin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Nationwide, more people are dying from prescription drug overdoses than from over doses of any and all illegal drugs Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States, surpassing traffic accidents and guns.

Themost abused prescription drugs in the United States today are opioids, such as oxycodone. A few simple statistics show the explosive growth of this class of drugs. In 1998, 11.5 tons of oxycodone were produced world-wide. By 2013, 138 tons of oxycodone were produced. Over 90 percent of the oxycodone produced is consumed in the United States.

Formore information and a list of drop-box locations go to http://www.chesco. org/2673/Medication-DropOff