“We empty our daily,” said Anoka County Sheriff’s Office Community Relations Coordinator Tierney Peters.
Coming up on April 24, the Sheriff’s Office is going to have a drive thru drug take back event in the parking lot. Anyone can bring prescriptions, creams, or pet medications to be disposed of safely.
“It’s always good to dispose of safely as opposed to putting them down the sink or down the toilet. It helps keep our environment safe, and it also reduces the ability to abuse drugs or have someone else abuse drugs,” said Peters.
That drug abuse is a growing issue.
“On average, during the past five years, drug abuse and overdoses have been increasing percent within our county.”
And here in Anoka County, the sheriff’s office sees a lot of cases where it involves kids.
“One of the most situations we’re seeing is high school athletes who get injured and then are prescribed an opiate of some sort. Then it causes them to become addicted, and then they start maybe trying to steal from grandparents, and ultimately having to revert to street drugs,” said Peters.
And simply removing unused or expired drugs from your home is a step toward curbing the problem of potential abuse.
The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office will be collecting the medications at their drive through event on April 24 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
You can also drop of medicine at indoors at the Sheriff’s Office every week day from 8 to 4:30.
