Officials tout drug drop off boxes
CRANBERRY TWP — District Attorney Rich Goldinger said Tuesday there's a heroin epidemic in Butler County, and more than 80 percent of heroin addicts start their drug abuse with prescription pills.
That's why Goldinger in connection with several state agencies has started a drop box program that allows residents to safely dispose of unused or unwanted prescription drugs.
The seven boxes are in police departments across the county from Butler to Cranberry Township. Goldinger said at a news conference Tuesday that the Cranberry drop box has had the most activity.
“It's getting quite a bit of use,” Goldinger said, adding officials have already emptied it a half-dozen times since January, which is when they were installed.
Goldinger said police already have recovered more than 250 pounds of prescription drugs from the drop boxes. That's significant, he said, because that's 250 pounds of medication that won't find its way to the streets or into the hands of abusers.
“These are medications that are readily accessible in virtually every household in Butler County,” Goldinger said.
Anyone using the drop boxes is assured anonymity in the process, he said, while each drop box but one is in a police department to ensure safety and security. The only exception is a drop box in the lobby of the county prison.
All of the prescription medications recovered in the boxes are incinerated at an undisclosed location, he said.
Cranberry Township police Lt. Kevin Meyer said before the installation of the drop boxes, police were forced to tell residents either to hold onto their medications or to throw them away in the trash.
“That was not an ideal response, and fortunately it's no longer the case,” he said.
Officials didn't specify which medications are most prevalent in the drop boxes, besides adding they are “highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse,” Meyer said.Goldinger said the drop boxes will go a long way in helping curb a serious drug problem for county residents. The district attorney said Pennsylvania ranks third in the country in heroin abuse and 14th in the country for drug overdoses.Cheryl Dondero, the deputy secretary of the state's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, said at the event one out of every five high school students abuses prescription drugs.She said high school students across the state keep track of other students who get their wisdom teeth out as a way to always have a supply of pain killers.“That's really startling,” she said.She said the drop boxes in the county represent only a small portion of the 200 drop boxes in more than 30 counties across the state.Goldinger added after the news conference he is happy with the initial response to the drop boxes, especially because they're getting significant use despite not widely being publicized.“I'm very surprised and very pleased,” he said. “I didn't know what to expect.”The seven boxes in the county came here as a result of a grant from the state's District Attorneys Association, the Staunton Farm Foundation, the state's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the state's Commission on Crime and Delinquency.The seven boxes are in police stations in Butler, Cranberry, Penn and Butler townships, Saxonburg and Slippery Rock, along with the county prison. Anyone wishing to drop off medications can do so during normal business hours.The boxes are for prescription and over-the-counter medications as well as liquid medications, inhalers, cream ointments, nasal sprays and pet medications.Officials stressed they will not accept needles, intravenous solutions and any other injectable medications.Anyone with questions or concerns can contact the district attorney's office at 724-284-5222.
