Price County Law Enforcement Agencies, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will coordinate a Prescription Drug Take-Back initiative on Saturday, April 30. Both the Park Falls Police Department lobby and the Price County Sheriff’s Office lobby in Phillips will be open from 9 a.m. to Noon accepting medications for disposal. This effort will continue to bring focus to the issue of prescription opiate abuse. The goal of the Take-Back Day is to provide a safe, convenient and responsible means of disposal, while also educating the community about the potential for abuse and consequences of improper storage and disposal of these medications.
“Proper drug disposal is one way to substantially reduce the abuse of prescription narcotic painkillers,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said. “Storing potentially dangerous drugs in a secure location and disposing of them promptly after use will eliminate the number of people improperly using these substances.”
Unused or expired medicine should never be flushed or poured down the drain. Water reclamation facilities are not designed to remove all of them and trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are showing up in rivers and lakes around the world.
GUIDELINES
All wast pharmaceutials must be generated by a household - no businesses are allowed.
Bring: Prescription (controlled and non-controlled) and over-the-counter medications, ointments, patches, non-aerosol sprays, vials and pet medications.
Do Not Bring: Illegal drugs, needles/sharps, inhalers, aerosol cans, bio-hazardous materials (anything containing a bodily fluid or blood), personal care products (shampoo, soaps, lotions, sunscreens), household hazardous waste (paint, pesticides, oil, gas), mercury thermometers.
- Participants may dispose of solid, non-liquid medication(s) by removing the medication from its container and disposing of it directly into a disposal box or into a clear sealable plastic bag. Plastic pill containers should not be collected. Blister packages are acceptable without the medications being removed.
- Liquids will be accepted during this initiative. However, the liquids, creams and sprays must be in their original packaging and evenly distributed within the boxes of collected solid prescription medications. Liquids without the original packaging will not be accepted.
- Illicit substances such as marijuana or methamphetamine are not a part of this initiative and should not be placed in collection containers.
Contact Lieutenant Gregory Wirsing at (715)339-3011 for more information.