SUNBURY— Do you know how to dispose of your old prescriptions? Geisinger Health System is at the forefront of the fight against uncontrolled opioids.
Eric Wright, Senior Investigator at Geisinger Health System was recently on WKOK’s On the Mark to talk about Geisinger’s drug take back efforts, “One of our initiatives is to raise awareness, and to remove medications that would otherwise have been used for a good condition, and after that condition is well managed, to remove those medications from homes properly. So we can reduce the amount of environmental impact and reduce the risk of diversion.”
Almost 500 police stations across the state already have drug drop boxes. The Snyder County Sheriff’s office has partnered with local pharmacies to make drug drop offs more available, says Snyder County Sheriff, John Zechman, “It’s a free service to the residents to collect unwanted and expired medications with no questions asked. It’s a safe and secure program to keep the drugs off the streets and out of the environment.
Sheriff Zechman believes this program will keep growing now that they are partnering with Geisinger Health System “In my experience, this has proven to be a very popular program with our residents in Snyder County. Last year, we collected approximately 500 pounds of unwanted medication, and that was at the Sheriff’s office location alone. So I look for that to grow now that we’re participating with these other pharmacies.”