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Boardman's prescription drop-off program is a success, township officials say
BOARDMAN
As Boardman’s 24-hour prescription drug drop-off program enters its third year, township officials say it has been a huge success.
“Boardman’s police department collected over 177 pounds [of prescription drugs] in 2013,” said Jonathan Fulkerson, deputy chief counsel for the Ohio attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office started the program, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Health and the Drug Free Action Alliance, in October 2012 to reduce prescription-drug abuse.
A total of 8,658 pounds were discarded in the drop boxes statewide in the program’s first year. Data for the period between October 2013 and October 2014 are not yet available.
“We got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of prescription-drug bottles within a few months,” said township Administrator Jason Loree. “It’s been unbelievable.”
The drop box is located in the lobby of the police department at 8299 Market St., and was set up free of charge to the township.
Most of the 60-plus boxes were made available only to law-enforcement agencies in southern Ohio. Boardman is one of the few communities outside of southern Ohio to get a box.
Boardman received a box, at the request of township trustees, after one law- enforcement agency decided not to participate in the program, Fulkerson said.
Police Chief Jack Nichols said township officials became aware of the need for a drop-off program after similar initiatives, such as having designated days during which people could get rid of old medication, netted huge amounts of prescription drugs.
“We were getting trash bag after trash bag full of stuff,” he said. “It became apparent that there was a lot of unused medication out there.”
The goal is to get people to safely dispose of their expired or unwanted prescription drugs, since it no longer is considered safe to dispose of them by flushing them down toilets, state and local officials said. The police department sees to it that the drugs are properly destroyed.
“We recognized that, for people to have unused medications in their cabinets for long periods of time, not only is it not safe, it gives an opportunity for them to end up in the hands of people who might abuse them,” said Trustee Larry Moliterno.
Moliterno, who runs Meridian Community Care, a local organization that serves people struggling with addiction, said he sees a lot of prescription-drug abuse in his line of work, and that he and other township officials recognized the need for a year-round drop-off program several years ago.
Nichols said though it is difficult to determine the impact of the program on prescription-drug abuse in the area, “It has to have had some effect, based on the sheer volume of stuff we’ve had dropped off here.”
Boardman residents can drop off prescription bottles 24 hours a day. The police department is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. During other hours, residents can go to the police department and use a phone outside the lobby to call a dispatcher to handle the drop-off.