Police to collect unwanted drugs Saturday

Used correctly, prescription medications can reduce pain or fight infections. But in the wrong hands, authorities worry those same medications could feed addictions, poison children or contaminate drinking water.

To reduce that risk, the Jackson Police Department is one of several local law-enforcement agencies participating in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's nationwide drug takeback initiative this weekend.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, people can bring expired or unwanted pills or patches to the Jackson Fire Department for proper disposal, with no questions asked, said Capt. Scott Eakers of the Jackson Police Department. Police cannot accept needles, ointments or liquids, he said.

People often are unsure what to do with leftover drugs, Eakers said.

"You can't flush them down the toilet, because that contaminates the water system," he said.

Throwing them in the trash isn't advisable, because drugs in landfills eventually leach into groundwater, Eakers said.

"Pharmaceuticals and personal care products can contain chemicals and compounds that can affect the growth and reproduction of aquatic and terrestrial organisms," Gena Terlizzi, communications director for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency both have studied pharmaceutical chemicals as "contaminants of emerging concern," Terlizzi said.

For instance, a study published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association found a hormone commonly used in oral contraceptives can harm fish if it ends up in waterways.

Meanwhile, drugs stored at home pose a risk to children, who may take them to school and share them with classmates, Eakers said.

Information on the DEA's website states the Scott County Sheriff's Department and Union County, Illinois, Sheriff's Department also are participating in the drug takeback Saturday.

Several other jurisdictions -- including the Jackson and Cape Girardeau police departments and the Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry County, Missouri, sheriffs' departments -- also have prescription drop boxes in their lobbies, accessible 24 hours a day.

Since September 2010, participants nationwide have turned in about 4.1 million pounds of unwanted medication, according to the DEA.

In Jackson alone, the last drug takeback operation collected about 170 pounds, Eakers said.

"That's a lot of pills," he said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

525 S. Hope St., Jackson, MO

Perry County Sheriff's Department

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Perryville, Missouri