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| Andover location |
Andover and Cuba– On Saturday, October 26 the Allegany
County Fall Pill Drop was held in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement
Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Andover and
Cuba were chosen for the fall locations.
The pill drop events allow residents the opportunity to get rid of
unused, expired, or unwanted medications and provides the partners the
opportunity to educate on the location of the pill drop boxes throughout
Allegany County. In Cuba there is a drop box located at the Cuba Police
Department, 15 Water Street. For Andover residents the closest pill drop boxes
are located at: the Alfred Pharmacy, 36 North Main Street, Alfred State
University Police, 10 Upper College Drive and at the Wellsville Police
Department, 46 South Main Street and Jones Memorial Hospital, 191 North Main
Street. The pill drop boxes are available all year long and for anyone to use.
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| Cuba location |
This event was held in partnership with the Allegany Council
on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc. (ACASA), the Allegany County Sheriff’s
Office, the Andover and Cuba Police Departments, and Partners for Prevention in
Allegany County (PPAC). Medications and Sharps waste was accepted from 10am to
2pm. Between the two locations, a total of 64 cars stopped and 106 pounds of
medications and two boxes of Sharps water was turned in by community members.
“The pill drops continue to be an asset to the community and the Cuba Police
Department is proud to be associated with this great initiative,” stated Chief
Dustin Burch of the Cube Police Department.
Each car that stopped received a Take It To The Box magnet,
which lists all of the pill drop box locations throughout Allegany County. In
addition to those previously mentioned, there are boxes at: the Allegany County
Sheriff’s Office and Nicholson Pharmacy in Belmont, Fillmore Pharmacy,
Friendship Pharmacy, and Jones Memorial Medical Practice in Bolivar.
The pill drop events and boxes are completely anonymous and
confidential. Once the Sheriff’s Office has collected the medications, they are
transported to an undisclosed location for incineration. Incinerating the
medications makes them harmless to the environment. “The pill drop events allow
us to educate the community on safe storage, safe use, and safe disposal of
medications and where the drop boxes are located throughout county” states PPAC
Coordinator Jonathan Chaffee. “We are also able to educate community members on
disposal of Sharps waste, most community members do not know that they can
dispose of Sharps waste at any transfer station in Allegany County for free.”
“The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Andover and
Cuba community for utilizing the pill drops to safely dispose of their unwanted
medications,” stated Undersheriff Kevin Monroe. “By collecting and destroying
these substances, we greatly reduce the amount available to find their way onto
our streets and into the hands of our youth.”
The agencies involved would like to send out a special
“Thank You” to Andover and Cuba Fire Departments for giving us a space to hold
the pill drop events. The next pill drop event will not be until April,
2020. The Allegany County pill drops
have been held since 2007, more information about the pill drop box locations
can be found at https://ppaccentral.org/pill-drop-locations/.
