Saturday April 30th, the Coalition for Health Communities and the Lake County Sheriff’s Department hosted one of the many Prescription Drug Take Back sites across the nation at the Beach Park Village Hall.

More than 4,700 sites nationwide joined the effort to seek to prevent pill abuse and theft. Over one hundred local community residents participated in the day and 8 Large 30 gallon trash bags of prescription drugs were collected. These drugs will be picked up by a Drug Enforcement Agency officer and disposed of by the DEA.

Many residents were thankful for the day and had been saving their drugs for as long as 6 years.  These residents had been care givers for parents, siblings and spouses and brought their drugs to the event in shopping bags, oatmeal boxes and shoe boxes.

Karen Ford from Beach Park said, “This is great, I have been waiting for this for a long time because I didn’t want to throw them away.”  Janet Thruax from Beach Park said, “I’ve been saving these for quite a while. I went through my medicine cabinet.” Residents came from as far away as Libertyville to attend the Prescription Drug Take Back Day. The Coalition and Sheriff’s department worked together to collect expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs that are potentially dangerous if left in the family’s medicine cabinet.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue.  Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Studies show that individuals that abuse prescription drugs often obtained them from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.  In addition, many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away – both potential safety and health hazards.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department is working with Save A Star to have a potential permanent collection site at their office.  For more information on the Coalition for Healthy Communities please contact (847) 731-2658 or www.zbchc.com.

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