Drug Dropoff Locations

In partnership with the Stark County Sheriff’s Office, Stark County Mental Health & Addiction Recovery maintains five drug collection boxes in the county. These boxes are free of charge.

Safely Dispose of Rx Drugs

Did you know that two-thirds of teens who misused pain relievers in the past year say that they got them from family and friends, including their home’s medicine cabinets? This is one reason it’s so important to properly dispose of unwanted, expired prescriptions.

Opiates are prescribed for everything from sports injuries to dental work, to managing pain. While they are prescribed by most physicians for all the right reasons, at times they get into the hands of others who mean to use them for the wrong reasons. Look in the back of your medicine cabinet. You might find the bottle of Vicodin® you did not use up disappeared without you even knowing it is gone. Maybe you have a refill on that Percocet® script you didn’t fill, but your teenager did. These real-life scenarios may sound far-fetched to some, but for parents in fear their child is using, or the teacher who sees signs that something is just simply wrong with a student, playing it safe and disposing of prescriptions properly keeps drugs out of the illicit supply pipeline.

R

Do

Regularly clean out your medicine cabinet
Keep pills in their original packaging when using the disposal boxes; remove or black out personal, identifiable information first
Model responsible medicine use and talk with your kids about medication safety

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Don't

Keep unwanted, expired medications
Flush medicine down the toilet or sink drain; it poses environmental hazards
Put loose pills in the disposal boxes; they create a safety hazard when collected
Put liquids, sharps, nebulizers, or trash in the disposal boxes