Police collecting old, unused pills for Drug Take-Back Day

LACONIA — Imagine tossing a bottle of leftover medication into the empty bed of a half-ton pickup truck.

Now, imagine a mountain of blister packs, pill bottles and boxes piling up to the point where you reach the load capacity of the truck — 3,000 pounds. That’s how much drugs were turned in during the Drug Take-Back days in 2019 and 2020 in the Lakes Region.

This Saturday six area police departments will be participating in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 20th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Area residents will have the opportunity to dispose of any expired, unused and unwanted prescription medications from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We don’t want unneeded or expired meds lounging around in people’s homes,” Kimbly Wade, the director of prevention strategies at the New Hampshire Partnership for Public Health, which is helping to coordinate the event.

The unneeded, outdated medications can be brought to sites in Laconia, Belmont, Gilford, Meredith, Franklin, and Sanbornton.

For the first time people will also be able to dispose of e-cigarettes and other vaping materials, Wade said.

The Laconia event is being done in partnership with the Laconia Youth Alliance, Stand Up Laconia/Stand Up Sachems and the partnership. The Franklin collection is being done in collaboration with the Mayor’s Drug Task Force.

Syringes, needles or other sharps, inhalers, aerosol cans, mercury thermometers, medications containing iodine, and illegal drugs or substances, including marijuana, cannot be dropped off.

The last Prescription Drug Take Back Day in October resulted in the collection of almost 975 pounds of unwanted, expired, unused prescription drugs in the Winnipesaukee Region, according to statistics provided by the partnership. About two-thirds of that total — 630 pounds — was dropped off in Laconia alone.

Because of ongoing COVID concerns, those staffing the event will be wearing masks and wearing gloves, Wade said. The public is encouraged to wear masks as well, she added.

Laconia Police Officer Eric Adams, LPD’s prevention enforcement treatment officer, who has led efforts to combat substance abuse, said that the Take Back program has been effective in cutting down on the amount of drugs which get into the wrong hands.

“It’s been tamed to some degree,” Adams said. Because there is less over-prescribing of potentially addictive drugs, addicts have increasingly turned to other substances, such as fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.

“But it all stems from over-prescribing,” he said.

The Take Back locations are:

— Belmont, Belmont Police Station, parking lot, 320 Daniel Webster Highway (Route 3).

— Franklin, CVS Pharmacy parking lot, 861 Central St.

— Gilford, CVS Pharmacy parking lot, 1371 Lake Shore Road (Route 11).

— Laconia, Laconia Police Department parking lot, 126 New Salem St.

— Meredith, Meredith Police Department parking lot, 400 Daniel Webster Highway (Route 3).

— Sanbornton, Sanbornton Police Department parking lot, 565 Sanborn Road (Route 132).