Pictured, from left, Erik Johnson, Wadesboro Police Department; J.R. Horne, Anson County Sheriff’s Office and Rozetta McCray from Anson County Partnership for Children at the Operation Medicine Drop held March 23 in Wadesboro.

slideshow

The recent “Operation Medicine Drop” conducted by the Anson County Sheriff’s Office, and in partnership with the Wadesboro Police Department and Anson County Partnership for Children, was a great success. Officers collected 14,719 doses of various medications turned in by citizens.

The Sheriff’s Office has now collected over 60,000 doses of prescription and over-the-counter medicines over the past few years of this program. Many of these medicines were a type of narcotic drug such as oxycontin and hydrocodone that are responsible for many accidental drug overdoses and deaths.

Statewide, more than 12 million doses of old prescription and over-the-counter drugs were collected during Operation Medicine Drop, breaking previous records, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Thursday.

According to the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force, “deaths from prescription drug overdoses are growing at an alarming rate and could eventually overtake motor vehicle accidents as the most common cause of accidental fatalities in North Carolina.” Since 2011, there have been more accidental overdose deaths from prescription medications than from all the illegal drugs combined.

Another reason for encouraging citizens to bring in their no-longer used or needed medicines is to properly dispose of them and discourage citizens not flushing them down toilets or putting them in trash bids to go to landfills. They eventually get back into the environment and can cause environmental damage.

Anson County Sheriff Tommy Allen, the Wadesboro Police Department and Anson County Safe Kids wishes to thank the many individuals who participated in this event. A second Medicine Drop will be scheduled this fall and a notice will be published in the local papers.

To educate young people about the dangers of prescription drug abuse, Attorney General Cooper is partnering with the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, the North Carolina Parent Resource Center, and the Governor’s Institute on Substance Abuse to sponsor a student video competition, which runs until April 26.