Drug Take Back Deemed a Success

Just of 180 pounds of pills were collected and properly disposed of in Muskingum County at Saturday’s drug take back sites.

That number joins the $2,700 pills collected state-wide. Muskingum County was the second largest contributor in Ohio, following behind Franklin County. CEO of Muskingum Behavioral Health Steve Carrel said the day leaves Muskingum County with cleaner streets.

“What it means for the community is that amount of pills has no chance now of reaching the streets, [or] illegal sales and purchases,” said Carrel. “It means there’s a safety factor there that increases. ”

Two hundred cars came through the line on Saturday and on average it only took 1.2 minutes to rid each person of their unused and expired medication. Carrel said that he’s happy to see the community dispose of the medication in a safe and healthy manner.

“I never recommend people to flush their medications because we’re actually seeing medications in measurable amounts in our drinking water now so that’s not a good way of disposing of them,” said Carrel.

Carrel said they are happy to celebrate another successful drug take-back day.