Prescription drug take back yielded 570 pounds of pills, 319 pounds of sharps

Press Release, Orleans County Sheriff Chris Bourke

ALBION – The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office participated in the 21st Annual National Prescription Take-Back Day on Oct. 23.

This event was held at the Orleans County Public Safety Building with personnel from the Criminal Division and the Corrections Division of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office.

The collection site took in 570.2 pounds of unused prescription medications and 319 pounds of sharps for a total combined weight of 890 pounds.

The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office has participated in the National Prescription Take-Back Day since 2012 and has collected a total weight of 10,695.5 pounds (5.3 tons) of prescription medications and sharps. This event is very successful for Orleans County with an average of 563 pounds of unused medications and sharps collected for each event.

New York State had 116 law enforcement agencies participate and they took in over 28,947 pounds of unused medications during the October event. On a national level, 744,082 pounds (372 tons) were collected. The combined total weight for all events since the start of this program is over 15 million pounds of unused medications collected nationally.

The National Prescription Take-Back Day is a very important community service that allows the residents of Orleans County the means to safely, dispose of unused medication and sharps. This event helps prevent groundwater contamination due to improper disposal and assists with preventing illegal diversion of medications.

The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank all of the community partners that assisted with coordinating the event. The Orleans and Erie County Public Health Departments, Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (GCASA) and Drug Enforcement Administration’s Diversion Control Unit all played important roles in making this program a success in Orleans County.