R2D2 was a fictional robot character in the Star Wars movie series that looked like a garbage can on wheels that was very high tech and could talk. It is this character that has influenced the naming of new secure Pill and Drug Disposal Drop-Box known as P2D2. Let me explain.
In our attempts to feel good and cure what hurts us, our society has become very dependent on prescription drugs to help us get better. If you are sick or have a bad headache or your sinus tubes are plugged or something else is wrong, you need the help of medication. You can legally obtain a doctor’s prescription and get the proper medication you need. I have seen reports that indicate that 4 out of 5 patients leave their doctor’s office with at least one prescription.
If you don’t feel you need to see a doctor you can still get helpful medication by purchasing over-the-counter drugs that have helped you in the past deal with your pain or need. If you are like me when you feel better you stop taking the medication that was purchased and you resume your daily routine. You don’t use up all the pills or liquid you bought and it stays stored in your medication cabinet or medication drawer.
Over time and with multiple bouts of sickness you do the same thing, you leave the left-over medication stored in the medication cabinet or drawer and it becomes a stockpile of old expired medication. Months go by and then years pass by faster than ever imagined and one day you realize you need to clean house-maybe to make more room for new medication. What do you do?
This is the question that a freshman Reedsburg High School Student, Jorydyn Schara, pondered one day in 2009. In finding answers to that question, Schara learned that in America at that time nearly 250 million pounds of drugs were being dumped into our nation’s water supply. Jorydyn also learned in her research the rising trend of you people ages 12-17 abusing prescription drugs that they obtained from their family’s medicine cabinet or the medicine cabinet of a friend. Sometimes the pills taken are sold to fellow students.
Jorydyn Schara wanted to do something to stop the drugs from being flushed down the drain and stop teenagers from abusing the stockpiled drugs they were finding in their family medicine cabinet. Jorydyn’s idea was to place an
ongoing and secure “drug drop box” in an authorized location for citizens to
bring their expired and unwanted drugs so they could not be used by teens or
flushed into a communities water supply.
I am very happy to announce that with the success of Jorydyn’s original idea,
more grant money has become available to place a heavily secured P2D2 Pill
and Drug Disposal Drop-Box at the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
This heavily fortified and secure iron drop box will be located in the in the
lobby area next to the elevators in an area that can be observed by the dispatch
center and any sheriff’s personnel entering and exiting the sheriff’s department.
The pill and drug disposal boxes are normally installed only in secure law
enforcement facilities. I am confident that our secure location that is available
to our county citizens 24 hours a day and 7 days a week will be secure and
offer our citizens an easy opportunity to properly and safely dispose of unused
pills and drugs.
The following Items CAN BE dropped off in the drop box:
1). All prescription medications.
2). All “over-the-counter” medications.
3). Pet medications.
4). Mediated ointments, lotions, creams, oils, and liquid medications in “leak
proof” containers.
5). Mediations samples.
6). Suppositories.
7). Vitamins and Supplements.
8). Homeopathic remedies.
Items that CANNOT be dropped into the drug drop boxes are needles/sharps,
syringes with needles, thermometers, IV bags, bloody or infectious waste,
personal care products, empty containers or hydrogen peroxide.
Far too many of us have un-used and expired medications in our medicine
cabinets, drawers and cupboards that keep piling up. These medications falling
into the wrong hands can be dangerous to our community. Flushing them
down the drain is not the answer and burying them in the ground can
contaminate our ground water. The P2D2 disposal box is a safe communitywide
pill and drug disposal system. By placing the pills and drugs in the drop box they can be properly incinerated protecting our environment.
My hope is to have our P2D2 Pill and Drug Drop-Box fully installed and operational soon. Stay tuned for the exact date of operation.
In the mean time, I am asking for your help in checking your medications, and talk with your friends and relatives about the importance of properly disposing of un-used or expired medications.
More information and a picture of the new drop-box can be found at the website www.saveastar.org on the internet.
As always, call me if you have any questions or input on this or any other matter you are concerned about
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