The Starke County Sheriff’s Department says their prescription drug drop-off program continues to bode well.
A box sits in the lobby of the Starke County Jail that’s intended to act as a receptacle for the prescriptions. Drop-off programs are designed to protect water supplies, prevent taking expired medication, and reduce the spread of medications used as an illegal narcotic.
Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin says this streamlines the process.
“Well you don’t want to flush them down in the stool,” says Dulin. “This, it’s just an easier way for us to dispose of them in the proper way rather than discarding them in the septic or the toilet.”
Starke County says its busiest time of year for prescription drop-offs is typically during warmer weather when individuals perform annual spring cleaning.
Typically, any prescription drugs received at the county level are kept in a locked box until they can be cataloged. Dulin says there is a person on staff designated to handle those tasks.
“The person that’s going to be assigned to it does log them down, and then their duties are just a basic chain of evidence, then they give them to me and we dispose of them with the state,” says Dulin.
Prior to the program, Dulin says there was no systematic way for individuals to properly get rid of their prescriptions.
If individuals find it difficult to come to the Starke County Jail, the Food and Drug Administration says there are items that can be mixed with certain prescription drugs prior to disposal in your household trash.
