Montco authorities collect four tons of drugs

In what may be a sign of the public’s willingness to fight the deepening opioid crisis, a recent Montgomery County “Take Back Day” collected nearly four tons of old drugs.

“Nearly 8,000 pounds is a lot of medicines, showing that residents are understanding the need to get these drugs out of their homes and disposed of properly,” said Montco DA Kevin Steele, whose office organized the Oct. 28 event, in a statement.

A total of 7,789.42 pounds of old drugs were collected.

“Ridding medicine cabinets of these medications is an important step in combatting the opioid and heroin epidemic, which often begins with prescription medicines taken from a home medicine cabinet,” Steele’s office said in a statement. “It is also a way to make sure our water supply remains safe and healthy by keeping unwanted medicines from being flushed into the water supply or disposed of through trash collections.”

The unwanted prescription and over-the-counter meds were collected at 41 locations around Montco.

Since medicine takeback programs began in 2010, more than 42,000 pounds of medication have been safely destroyed.

Nearly 7,200 pounds were collected at a similar event in April of this year, and last year took the record at 12,000 pounds of meds disposed of in Montco.