Muskingum County Sheriff and Health Departments host Spring 2022 Drug Takeback Day

ZANESVILLE, Oh – The Muskingum County Sheriff and Zanesville-Muskingum Health Departments held their drug-takeback day today.

Unused and expired drugs were collected at a drive-through at the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department this afternoon.

This event provided the community a safe way to dispose of things such as used needles, sharps, and old medications.

Carell says this safe disposal helps keep these items, often forgotten about and left laying around the house or hidden away in medicine cabinets, off the streets and out of the wrong hands. 

“The pills go to the DEA. The protected health information, the non-narcotics kinds of things, will go to be incinerated. Northside Pharmacy helps us with that. And then the sharps, the needles and the diabetic supplies have always gone to Genesis.”

The drop-off collected 122 pounds of pills last fall and set a record of 240 cars last spring.

The help and support of organizations in the community is crucial for this event.

“This event here is a total, a community project. I mean, we obviously, nationally have the DEA. Locally, we have the Sheriff’s Department, Muskingum Behavioral Health, Northside Pharmacy, The health department, and Genesis all work together to better the community by getting rid of all these medications and all of these sharps.”

Today’s drop-off helped get drugs, especially narcotics, opioids, and painkillers which could have deadly impacts if not properly disposed of.

If you didn’t make it out today, another Drug-Takeback Day will be hosted this fall and a year-round drop-off is available at the Muskingum County Jail.