Every year on the last Saturday in April, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) promotes National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. The goal is encouraging people to bring their unused and expired prescription pills to a collection point where local law enforcement officers collect them for incineration. This prevents both accidental and intentional misuse.
Starting this year, Catholic Human Services (CHS), Up North Prevention (UNP), and the Leelanau County Substance Misuse Prevention Coalition (LCSMPC) partnered with the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department to promote Take Back Day on Friday, April 26. We plan to host this event annually on the last Friday of April from 10 am to 2 pm.
UNP Prevention Specialist Sharon Vreeland and CHS Peer Recovery Coach Dennis Brown hosted a table in the department lobby, providing information, Deterra home pharmaceutical disposal bags, medication lock boxes and locked bags, and 2-dose boxes of Narcan. We also had the opportunity to meet the amazing firefighters and EMTs from the Leland Fire Department and tour their new, custom-built ambulance! The Leland Fire Department is equipped with Narcan to treat suspected opioid overdoses and provides key medical support to the Sheriff’s deputies and jail inmates.
The Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department has provided a prescription pill collection box in their lobby since 2013. It is accessible 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Since they started offering the program in 2013, they have prevented approximately 1.6 million pills from being misused. They look forward to celebrating their 2 millionth pill collected in the near future!
CHS UNP also provides free doses of Narcan to the Sheriff’s Department for their officers to carry. The Sheriff also partners with the Grand Traverse Band to ensure that everywhere at their department and in the county Government Center where there is a fire extinguisher, an AED, or a first aid kit, there is also a Naloxone rescue kit available.
CHS UNP and the LCSMPC are grateful for their partnership with the Sheriff’s Department and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians as we seek to prevent new substance use disorders from forming, support people seeking treatment and in recovery, and reduce the stigma associated with SUDs so that more people will seek treatment and recovery.
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