Drugs with a total estimated street-value of $27,000 were safely taken out of circulation on Saturday.
As part of National Prescription Drug Drop-Off Day, Sault Ste. Marie Police Services and Ontario Provincial Police officers set up at the Station Mall and the Senior Citizens' Drop in Centre to raise awareness and collect unused, expired, or unwanted medication bottles.
Constable Troy Miller, who organized the Sault’s efforts for the collection day as part of National Police Week, said once collected the non-scheduled drugs would be destroyed by incineration locally while controlled substances are sent to Health Canada for destruction.
Miller said that while they accepted any collected all types of medication, even as harmless as multivitamins, a big focus of the program is to get scheduled substances with a high-street value off the streets.
Strong pain medications like Percocet, Tylenol 3, OxyContin, Fentanyl, Codeine, and Lithium fit this category.
The two drop-off locations on Saturday collected a total of 38 scheduled items of this nature with a street value of $27,000 – about 1100 pills and 500mg of liquid in total.
They also collected two big boxes of non-scheduled items.
“A big area of concern is prescription pain medications left after someone has passed away. In the homes of the deceased there can be cabinets full of very powerful pain medication and people might not think to get rid of them,” said Miller.
Miller said that prescription drugs in homes are a major reason many break and enters occur and that it’s a very good idea to get rid of unused medication as soon as possible.
Its not recommended to just throw old pills out because there is potential for environmental damage and if the drugs get into the watershed they may leak back into the water supply.
“Traditionally people got rid of drugs by flushing them down the toilet but they shouldn’t,” said Miller.
Those that didn’t make it out on Saturday can still drop off their unwanted medication to their local pharmacy for safe disposal.