The Mountlake Terrace Police Department has started a program where residents can drop off unwanted medications and they will be disposed of:
Residents may now drop off unwanted or unused medications at the City of Mountlake Terrace Police Department at 5906 232nd Street SW. Secure lock boxes are available at 28 police departments located throughout Snohomish County for people to drop off unwanted vitamins, cold medicines, painkillers, inhalers and other medications. For details and hours, call the Program information line at (425) 388-3199.
Police ask people to leave items in their original containers and black out any personal information except the name of the medication. Persons dropping off unused medications do not need to provide their name, only ZIP codes for research purposes. The secure boxes will be emptied frequently and medications destroyed by law enforcement personnel.
Officials are hopeful that this new pilot program will reduce the number of drug overdoses, accidental poisonings, and people becoming dependent on prescription painkillers. It is also intended to educate people about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
For further information about the Prescription Drug Drop-Off Program, contact Joie Worthen at (425) 744-6248 or by e-mail at jworthen@ci.mlt.wa.us.
I don’t get it… why wouldn’t we just throw them away. Is there some specific reason or ordinance that says we can’t do the exact same thing above (without adding the zip code) and put them in our regular waste can? I haven’t heard of hard-up drug addicts rummaging through garbage cans for the one-in-a-thousand chance they might get something stronger than a multi-vitamin.
I can understand funding education to prevent overdoses, using expired medications, etc, but I don’t think using tax dollars to pay our law enforcement to throw away medications is very good use of that money, when it’s just as easy for the public to do it.
Aren’t there more useful and productive programs our city can be working on than this one?