Community Program to Host Annual Drug Take Back Program

ZANESVILLE, OH — The community gets a chance to fight back against drug use.

The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department is teaming up with the Drugs Enforcement Agency, Genesis Healthcare Systems, and Northside Pharmacies for their annual Drug Take Back event. Muskingum County Sheriff, Matt Lutz, talked about the details of the long-standing program.

“This is a program that the DEA started, and they reached out to local partners to help with getting old, unused drugs out of houses, off the streets and getting them putting them back to where it’s a safe disposal. We have been partnered with them for quite some time and we get a lot of good feedback on this program, and we get a lot of prescription pills that are turned in on this day,” Sheriff Lutz said.

This program is free and anonymous. Personal information will be cut off the original containers and destroyed. Sheriff Lutz explained that the types of drugs they are referring to are not hard drugs or illegal narcotics, but rather pill formed prescribed substances that are in the home and no longer in use.

We go a little bit farther then some groups because of our partners. We do take liquids and we do take sharps and a lot of places won’t take that. This gives us a better way to dispose of the drugs and it also gives us a way for folks not to have this stuff in their homes which might make them a victim,” Sheriff Lutz said.

This event will take place at two different sites, the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department on 7th Street and at Reisbecks on June Parkway October 28th from 10am-2pm. For more information, please call (740) 454-9741 or visit www.zmchd.org.