Medication Drop Box

PRESS RELEASE – Right outside the Clay County Sheriff’s Office’s front door there is a Medication Drop Box. This drop box is intended to collect controlled substances and prescription pills which would be harmful if the wrong person got a hold of them.

The drop box is not intended for insulin syringes or any kind of sharp objects, over the counter medication such as cough syrup, patches, creams, or headache medicine. Putting those items in the medicine drop box puts our property and evidence officer at risk for a needle stick, clogs up the drop box for legitimate medicine needing to be properly discarded, and requires us to remove items from packaging prior to destruction in an incinerator.

Per the Food & Drug Administration’s website, fda.gov you can follow the following guidelines for those items.

“Disposing medicines in household trash: If a take-back option is not available, almost all medicines, except those on the FDA flush list, can be thrown into your household trash. These include prescription and OTC drugs in pills, liquids, drops, patches and creams.”

Follow these steps:

“Remove the drugs from their original containers and mix them with something undesirable, such as used coffee grounds, dirt or cat litter. This makes the medicine less appealing to children and pets – and unrecognizable to someone who might intentionally go through the trash looking for drugs.

Put the mixture in something you can close (a resealable zipper storage bag, empty can or other container) to prevent the drug from leaking or spilling out.

Throw the container in the trash at home.

Scratch out all your personal information on the empty medicine packaging to protect your identity and privacy. Throw the packaging away.”

If you have a question about your medicine, ask your health care professional or pharmacist. If you have specific questions regarding disposing of medicine at our drop box, please feel free to ask us for assistance, we’re always happy to help.