Consumer drug return program a big success
A Potomac Water Watch consumer drug return program has stopped more than a ton of prescription medications and controlled substances from going into the Potomac River, said organizer Abby Chapple.
Chapple, an active member and the former president of the Friends of the Cacapon River, was excited that the drug return program was making an impact regionally.
The program, now known as the West Virginia Drug Return Partnership, urges people to turn in their unwanted, expired or unused medications instead of flushing them down the drain where they wind up in area drinking water.
Most septic systems, municipal drinking water plants and bottling plants don’t filter out items like pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides and antibiotic hand cleaners, according to the Potomac Water Watch website.
These products along with others contain emerging contaminants and endocrine disruptors which are polluting the streams and rivers and could be contributing to the intersex fish condition found in the
region.
Collection sites
A number of locations statewide and regionally are set up as collection sites for medications.
The Morgan County Health Department along with pharmacies and medical facilities in areas such as Martinsburg, Romney, Petersburg, Moore-field, Baker and Franklin take consumer medications and have them disposed of in a safe manner.
Health Department
The Morgan County Health Department accepts only non-narcotic prescription and over-the-counter medications daily during business hours Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., said Health Department administrator Lee Fowler.
Twice a year they hold a “Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinets Day” in collaboration with the Morgan County Partnership.
They accept narcotic-based prescription medications on those two days – one in the spring and one in the fall – since a Morgan County Sheriff’s Department representative is there to accept them, Fowler said.
In the year and a half
that the Health Department has participated in the consumer drug return program, they have collected around 10 barrels or boxes filled to the brim with medications, he said. Fowler estimated the barrel/box size as two and a half feet high and around 18 inches in diameter.
“That much medication is not being flushed and dumped into our waterways,” Fowler said.
There has been a very good response to the program, Fowler said.
Clean Out Your Cabinets
The next “Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinets Day” will be held on Saturday, November 13 in conjunction with a national event – the American Medicine
Chest Challenge, said Morgan County Partnership community educator Megan Scott.
On that day, people can bring all unused and expired narcotic prescription medications, over-the-counter medicines and prescription medications to the Morgan County Health Department, she said.
Leave labels on
Fowler asked that people leave the labels on all medication bottles, but that they remove or blacken out the person’s name.
