(Newswire.net — October 20, 2014) Hood River, — If you’ve been looking to dispose of excess and expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, you can visit the safe, secure and permanent drop-off location at the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office, located at 309 State Street in Hood River, Oregon.
More than 70 percent of young people abusing prescription pain relievers get them through friends or family, a statistic that includes raiding the family medicine cabinet. Now Hood River citizens won’t have to wait for a specific take-back day to clean out their medicine cabinets.
“Doctors and other prescribers are not permitted to take back and dispose of certain kinds of unused pain killers like hydrocodone or morphine,” said David Russo, DO, a physiatrist and pain management specialist at Columbia Pain Management, PC in Hood River. “Being able to direct patients to a safe and secure drop-off location where those medications can be properly disposed and destroyed is a great resource for our community.”
Columbia Pain Management, PC has partnered with the Sheriff’s office to establish a permanent MedReturn drug collection program in order to reduce the supply of drugs that can potentially harm teens and adults.
“This is a great example of a community partnership that will benefit the residents of our county,” said Hood River County Sheriff Matt English. “We are very pleased to be able to provide a secure, accessible location to dispose of unwanted medications.”
The collection site is open weekdays during business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding holidays. Drugs can be dropped off with no questions asked.
“The issue is what should people do with all of the excess and expired medications that people have in their houses,” explained Dr. Trey Rigert, founder of Columbia Pain Management, PC. “Guidance in the past was to flush it down the toilet. Frankly, that creates another problem because it ends up in the rivers and that hurts the environment.”
By properly disposing of medications that are no longer needed or safely usable, we can reduce the supply and access to drugs that can be abused or misused by teenagers and adults, thus preventing overdoses and death. Dr. David Russo and Sheriff Matt English spearheaded the effort to establish a drug collection program as a matter of public safety. The drug collection unit is produced by MedReturn, LLC of Grafton, WI. MedReturn, LLC is committed to providing a safe, secure and environmentally friendly way to help law enforcement agencies and communities collect unwanted or expired household medication, including prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, and unused pharmaceuticals.
Columbia Pain Management, PC, is the Gorge’s only comprehensive and interventional pain management center specializing in minimally invasive and non-operative treatment of spinal pain, musculoskeletal medicine, and the medical rehabilitation of patients with orthopedic and neurological injuries. CPM also participates in a weekly educational video series to help pain sufferers understand why they hurt and what treatment options are available.
If you’d like to know more about Columbia Pain Management or the MedReturn drug collection program you can visit their website or call the office.