Kent County residents now have a 24-hour, anonymous prescription drug drop-off station at the sheriff’s department in Chestertown for safe disposal of unused or expired medications.
The drop box is located at the Kent County Sheriff’s Office at 104 Vickers Drive, Unit B and offers a safe, easy and responsible way to dispose of extra medications. If you have unused, expired or otherwise unwanted prescription medications at home, please bring them in. Proper disposal helps reduce the chances of accidental poisonings of family members – or pets — and helps decrease the risks of intentional misuse and abuse.
“The Kent County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to offer a method for citizens to properly dispose of unwanted prescriptions each and every day of the year now,” said Kent County Sheriff John Price. “We will continue with our ‘Sheriff’s RX round-up’ efforts each year throughout Kent County, which provides a convenient way for some to properly dispose of unwanted or expired prescription medications.”
This is the first drop box for Kent County; the sheriff’s office previously collected unused prescriptions at the department during regular business hours. The sheriff’s office, in partnership with the Adolescent Substance Abuse Coalition (ASAC) also participated in National Drug Take-Back Day this past April, with five collection sites across the county.
About 75 percent of teens say they can easily access prescription drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinet. If you’ve got these medications at home, lock them up, keep track of your pills and take any unused pills to the new drop box.
“Leaving unused medications at home is an unnecessary temptation,” said Annette Duckery, substance abuse prevention coordinator at Kent County Behavioral Health. “Each day, 1,756 teens abuse a prescription painkiller for the first time – and most get the pills from friends or family. Proper storage and disposal helps reduce the chances of misuse and abuse.”
Funding for the disposal box came from the Mid-Shore Opioid Misuse Prevention Program, which is a five-county coalition working to prevent opioid misuse in our community. If you’d like more information on the program, contact Erin Hill, program coordinator at [email protected].
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