The eighth annual Take Back Initiative is this coming Saturday at locations around the Northwoods. The event is sponsored by the DEA and locally, members of law enforcement will be accepting unused drugs of most types during the collection times.
Detective Terri Hook from the Oneida County Sheriff's Department says the goal is to get unused medicines away from the potential of misuse...
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"....some of these medications are valuable to people on the streets as far as illegal drug use. That's part of the reason why we do the take back through the sheriff's office is because we want to get these medications out of people's houses so they're not there to be a temptation to anyone...."
Many people flush the meds down the toilet, and Hook says this becomes an environmental problem in public waters of the state. She says the DEA takes the drugs and has them incinerated. She says the disposal is free and anonymous...
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"....we'll have them take the bottles...and dump them into a container. We don't ask anyone to give any kind of names or identification and we don't charge anything for this..."
Inhalers and syringes are not accepted.
The collection is Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In Oneida county, the sheriff's department collection will be at the Oneida county landfill and at the Three Lakes town hall and Rhinelander police department. In Minocqua, the collection will be at the Marshfield Clinic Pharmacy from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Many other law enforcement agencies are participating. If you want to check for a local collection, go to the DEA website at DEA.gov or check with your local law enforcement agency.
