Don't Let Your Drugs Fall Into the Wrong Hands

Got drugs you don't need?

You can get rid of them April 28, when Strongsville police participate in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

Drop off expired or unused prescription medication at the between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

This is the first time Strongsville has offered a drop-off site in the city.

Sgt. Mike Grywalsky said the department will set up a tent in the parking lot to collect the containers.

"You'll just have to drive up, get out and drop them off -- no questions asked," he said. "All we want to do is get this stuff off the streets."

Only pills -- no liquids -- will be be accepted.

The National Take-Back Initiative is organized by the DEA, with local partners including Drug Awareness and Prevention Inc.

For the last four years, accidental drug overdose has been the leading cause of injury death in Ohio, surpassing motor vehicle crashes and suicide, according to Drug Awareness -- and medicine cabinets are the primary source of abused prescription drugs.

“Generation Rx believes using medications prescribed by a doctor to another family member is a safe way to get high," Nancy Pommerening, the agency director, said in a news release. 

She said abuse of prescription pain pills like Codeine, Oxycontin, Vicodin, Opana, Darvon and Percocet has led to a massive increase in heroin addiction. 

“Heroin is the cheaper, street-drug form of opiate-based Rx medicines," Pommerening said.

Flushing old or unneeded medication isn't the answer because it seeps into the waterways and soil and contaminates them.

"You're messing with the ecosystem," Grywalsky said. 

He said Strongsville is participating in the effort to give residents a close-to-home place to dispose of unneeded medication. 

"We see it a lot with elderly people, where a spouse passes away and they're left with all this medication they don't know what to do with," he said.

In the last Take-Back Day in October, more than 377,000 pounds of medication were collected nationwide.