Sheriff says Schuylkill County drug take back successful; 637 pounds collected
Oct. 31—POTTSVILLE — The office of Schuylkill County Sheriff Joseph G. Groody collected 637 pounds of unused medications Saturday as part of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
The event is sponsored by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and offers anonymous disposal of unneeded medications at more than 4,000 locations nationwide.
In Schuylkill County, medications were collected by 21 police departments as well as at St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus in Coaldale, according to Groody.
Topping collections in the county were the Schuylkill County Courthouse, with 119 pounds, and the Pine Grove Police Department, with 106 pounds.
At the courthouse, Groody and his deputies accepted boxes of the collected drugs, logged where they came from and weighed the boxes before securing them.
The drugs were scheduled to be picked up Monday morning by DEA agents and Pennsylvania National Guard members.
The sheriff said the medications are taken to a site near Philadelphia, logged in and then incinerated.
Groody said that Saturday's collection was the eighth year that the sheriff's office participated in the take back event, which is held twice annually: in April and October.
"It's an important program and as long as I'm sheriff we will be participating," Groody said Saturday afternoon as he stood outside of the courthouse.
He said drugs are often stolen from elderly family members or disposed of inappropriately, such as being flushed down a toilet.
"This (the take back event) is good for the environment and good for law enforcement," Groody said.
He said that in the eight years his office has been involved, Schuylkill County has collected the most unused medications, beating out Berks, Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties.
Groody also said safely disposing of unused medications helps cut down on the number of overdose hospitalizations and deaths.
Serious problem
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the U.S. 107,622 people died as the result of drug poisoning in 2021, or one person every five minutes.
Through the drug take back authorities collect tablets, capsules, patches and other forms of prescription drugs.
Collection sites did not accept illicit drugs or syringes, and liquid products such as cough syrups were accepted only in their original containers and with their caps sealed tightly.
The take back also accepted vaping devices and cartridges, provided the lithium batteries were removed.
Jennifer Morgan, a captain in the sheriff's office, took time out of her day off to help unload, weigh and log the drugs collected.
"This is a valuable incident and as long as I'm here, I'll be part of it," she said.
Mahanoy City Police Cpl. Charles Kovalewski dropped off the drugs collected from the borough.
Unused medications, he said, are a problem both for police and for family members of loved ones who pass away.
"Family members are always calling, saying they don't know what do to with the drugs left behind," Kovalewski said. "We tell them this is the safest and the best way."
