The American Medicine Chest Challenge

Niles, Indiana: Niles residents toss away unneeded medicines

The pain in Patricia Gondeck's shoulder went away long before the bottle of Vicodin she received to treat it.

The medication, long expired, sat unused for years in Gondeck's Niles' home.

"I've been trying to get rid of it for a long time," she said Saturday. "It shouldn't be in the house anymore."

Maple Samuels, meanwhile, came with boxes of various medication for her son who had a lung transplant five years ago. The expired medication was beginning to mount in her Niles house.

"It was packed up," she said. 

Whatever their reason, hundreds of area residents took advantage of the American Medicine Chest Challenge on Saturday, a national program which encourages people to bring in their unused and expired medicine.

The event was put on locally by the Berrien County Sheriff's Department, the Berrien County Health Department and the Berrien County Community Alliance Against Substance Abuse Coalition. There were seven different drop-off sites across Berrien County — including at the South County Courthouse in Niles, where Gondeck and Samuels went.

Kelly Laesch, crime prevention coordinator for the sheriff's department, said she hopes to have four such medication drop-offs a year in the future.

"People have a lot of expired medicine lying around the house," she said. "It's a way for kids not to get into it. First, so they don't hurt themselves, and, second, nobody steals them.

"It is a need." 

At the end of the four-hour event, the medicine was collected by the sheriff's department, and will be destroyed at a later date. Officials collected 10 pounds each at sites in Niles and Buchanan.

Laesch said taking prescription medication to a drop-off site is the safest way to dispose to it.

"If you flush them, they can get into the water system," she said. "If you properly dispose of them, it helps the environment."

Candace Tarbox, of Niles, dropped off several packets of medication she took from an adult living facility in Niles where she works.

"We used to dispose of them in house until they disallowed us to do that," she said. "So we had been looking for a place to take them." 

When Mike Reed, of Niles, stopped by and saw what was going on, he said he was going to collect a couple hundred pill bottles of medication collected over the years from various family members that have since passed.

"It's really handy," he said.

Laesch said drop-off sites are especially convenient for places such as adult living facilities and assisted living facilities, where several people live together.

The county also took part in a similar event back in September through the Drug Enforcement Administration.

During that drug take back, 170 pounds of prescription drugs and other medications were turned in to the Michigan State Police post in Niles during a four-hour period, including a prescription from 1956. Including all four sites in the county that took part that day, 310 pounds of medication were turned over. 

Laesch said people can drop medication off at senior living centers and police departments throughout the year.

For more information about prescription drug disposal, check the websites atwww.berriencounty.org/recycle or dea.gov.

Staff writer Tom Moor:
tmoor@sbtinfo.com
574-235-6234