Secure Medicine Take Back

Prescriptions and pain medicines are a very necessary part of our health and survival. However, many times, a patient doesn't finish out the round of pain medications or prescriptions given after a medical event or surgery. What happens to these pills? Likely, they sit in an easily accessible cupboard and are forgotten. Many don't give this habit a second thought, never mind consider that these loose pills may be endangering their youth.

Whether a youngster is simply curious or deliberately seeking prescriptions for a drug habit, unprotected medicine can be incredibly dangerous for children. More than 60,000 are admitted to the ER per year because of unsupervized access to medication. In Grays Harbor, one in twenty 10th grade students re-

port using painkillers to get high, and one in ten report using pre-scription drugs that were not prescribed to them (source WA State Healthy Youth Survey 2014).

With consequences ranging from poisoning to seizures and even death, it is important to know where and how your medication is stashed and also where to get rid of it once you are no longer in need of the pills. Simply flushing them down the toilet negatively impacts the environment and throwing them away leaves the door open for discovery by a child. In Grays Harbor, there are two drop-box locations in which to leave your medication with no questions asked.

Hoquiam Police Department

Daily, 24 hour

215 10th Street

Hoquiam WA 98550

Phone: 360-532-0892

Montesano Police Department

Monday—Friday, 8am-5pm

112 North Main Street

Montesano WA 98563

Phone: 360-249-1031

What Can I Dispose Of?

 Controlled substances