During last month’s medication take-back event, more than 2,000 pounds of pills, 200 pounds of syringes and 40 pounds of inhalers were collected.
On Sept. 26, more than 1,000 Clark County residents took medications to four drop-off sites, according to Clark County Environmental Services. Six hundred pounds of recyclables were diverted from landfills, and 60 pounds of medications were given to the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington.
One of the event’s goals is to prevent prescription drug abuse among youth. In the 2014 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, 10 percent of Clark County high school seniors admitted to recently using someone else’s prescription drugs. Take-back events also help prevent medications from getting into our water.
“A recent water quality study found that 80 percent of water samples from 139 streams contained small amounts of human medicines,” according to a county news release.
