MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Across the nation thousands of posts will established to accept unused bottles of pills or outdated medication which has been sitting in a medicine cabinet for whatever reason. Most homes have a few bottles of prescription pills, including some powerful painkillers or other narcotics, which have persisted because people were unsure how to properly get rid of them. A lot of times the pills will be leftover from a loved one who has died and their remaining medicine is still there.
Flushing them down the toilet is no longer a recommendation. The sewer system can often lead to environmental contamination with a number of drugs. But, leaving them in the medicine cabinet means they still have the potential to wind up on the streets and used for no good.
“You have kids or other family members who know drugs are available and they could experiment and think it may be safer. They look for that and they seek those out,” said Matt Harvey, the U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s northern district.
Harvey, who formerly headed up the West Virginia First Foundation and served as Jefferson County Prosecutor before coming to the federal prosecutor’s post, knows about such things. He’s prosecuted drug crimes most of his career and seen not only the good drugs can do to people, but also the bad.
“Not only will people divert them for illicit reasons, but you have accidental diversion as well. You might have a child that has access to it. As long as the pills are in there and the longer they are in the house, the more probable the chance there could be an accidental ingestion of a drug,” he said.
Police stations all across the state will be open Saturday as part of the DEA’s drug takeback day. During the 2024 event, the DEA collected a total nationwide of 9,600 tons of old drugs to be destroyed properly. The event is a high profile way to shine the light on the dangers of old medicine in your house, but Harvey said in reality–every day is a drug takeback day at most pharmacies and police stations.
“This is a focus today, but collection sites remain open at a lot of police stations and pharmacies where people an dispose of those drugs throughout the year,” Harvey said.