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Drug Take Back Day Offers a Safe Way to Dispose of Prescription Pills

KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

As the opioid crisis rages on, public health officials have been urging people to get rid of prescription painkillers that are no longer needed.  Communities around the state are holding events this Saturday, which is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Columbus Public Health Director Teresa Long says organized drop-offs for drugs are a much better option than throwing them away or flushing them.

“It’s about getting them out of the house, but we want to get them safely out of the house ... (to) actually get them into a place where they actually can be disposed. They actually are incinerated.”

Studies suggest that many teenage and young adult opioid and heroin users got addicted through drugs they found in medicine cabinets. 

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.