Pill Take Back Day is October 22

The next Pill Take Back Day, sponsored by the Oconee Sheriff’s Office, will take place Saturday, October 22 in the Sheriff’s Office substation near the Oconee Memorial Hospital emergency room. From 10 until 2 that day, the following items will be accepted for disposal:  old or no longer needed prescription medication, in pill or liquid form, along with over the counter medication and vitamins. “The Pill Take Back Days will make it possible for the Sheriff’s Office not only to safely collect but safely dispose of these medications,” says Lt. Jeremy Chapman of the Special Operations Division of the Sheriff’s Office.  “This will prevent these medications from damaging the environment from being disposed of in the wrong place and also prevent these medications from getting into the hands of children or other individuals to protect them from harm.” Meantime, there is a drug collection unit inside the mail lobby of the Law Enforcement Center at 300 South Church Street in Walhalla. You can bring unused prescription and over the counter medications and empty the contents there during normal business hours. The Sheriff’s Office requests those who bring medication in pill form to bring those medications in their marked prescription bottles and then open up those bottles and empty their contents into the containers and then take those bottles to be recycled. So far in 2016, the Sheriff’s Office has collected approximately 296.4 pounds of medication during earlier Pill Take Back Days this year and approximately 204 pounds of medication as a result of the Drug Collection Unit.