Drug Take Back Day - prairiepress.net

By GARY HENRY ghenry@prairiepress.net

The annual Drug Take Back Day provides area residents with a safe way to dispose of medicine that is out-of-date or no longer needed.

“I’m seeing some of the same people coming back each year,” said pharmacist Steve Benefiel of Pearman Pharmacy. “We are seeing smaller amounts because people are getting cleaned out.”

Benefiel was staffing the booth Wednesday, Aug. 26, adjacent to the Edgar County Jail, where people drove up and handed him baggies or bottles of pills. Drug Take Back Day is a joint effort between Pearman Pharmacy, the Edgar County Sheriff’s Department and the Community Addiction Response and Education (CARE) coalition. It started a few years ago as a way to prevent powerful narcotic prescription pills and possibly dangerous outdated medicine from getting on the street.

CARE helped the sheriff’s department acquire a special incinerator to burn the surrendered medicine. The incinerator was not in use Wednesday because of the 90 plus degree temperature. Benefiel said everything collected will get burned on a cooler day when it is easier to work around the incinerator.

He estimated more than 40 pounds of pills were turned in Wednesday. In addition, Benefiel has stockpiled more than 100 pounds of unused prescription pills that customers gave him over the course of the last year.

The sheriff’s department also maintains a drop off box outside the jail where residents can deposit surplus medicine or contraband without question.

Benefiel said the Edgar County Coroner’s office is another source of medicine requiring destruction.

“When the coroner does an investigation, he picks up all the medicine at the scene as evidence,” said Benefiel, noting the drugs can be destroyed when no longer needed as evidence.

Benefiel has two main objectives fueling his participation in the Drug Take Back Day. First is the desire to make sure legitimate medicines such as powerful painkillers and narcotics that some patients have a legitimate need to use do not find their way onto the street for illicit activity.

An example might be the prescription medicines provided to cancer patients and the issue of making sure those pills do not get away when the patient dies.

Benefiel’s other big concern is the environment.

“It’s mostly the prescription meds I’m concerned about getting destroyed,” said Benefiel. “The hormones can get into the water.”

The incinerator used by the sheriff’s department is an EPA approved method for destroying medicines with minimal environmental impact.

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