Students at the Burton Center for the Arts and Technology are doing their part to reduce the number of legal painkillers that are used sometimes as a gateway to opioid abuse – even to illegal and often deadly heroin. “The Lonely Dropbox” they were crafting last month in the automotive shop class was destined to become a receptacle for unused opioid prescription drugs – keeping them out of medicine cabinets where they could fall into the wrong hands. The drop box was destined for the lobby at the Vinton Police station.
A previous drop box built by Burton students and placed at the Roanoke County Sheriff’s office in Salem is often full – a 5 gallon trash bag filled with old prescriptions – when they empty it every few weeks said a sheriff’s department deputy during an event where the latest drop box in the works was being shown off.
Nancy Hans with the Prevention Council of Roanoke County said creating the drop box out of steel was a part of the Urgent Love initiative created by the Council. While the emphasis will be on more high-tech ways to deliver the message about the dangers of opioid addiction (centered on a website and videos) – a problem here in the valley and nationwide – the drop box is a “low hanging fruit” idea that makes sense, one that “everyone can get involved with.”
The Urgent Love focus is all about removing the stigma surrounding opioid addiction, which often starts with legal painkillers and evolves to illegal and cheap heroin. Getting Roanoke County students and the school system involved with building the new drop box was “an incredibly collaborative effort,” noted Hans.
Roanoke County Chief of Police Howard Hall said there was “an urgent need” for people to have a place to dispose of unused opioids. The twice a year National Drug Take Back Days that occurs locally pulls in plenty of prescription medications – but that’s only two days a year.
“They can fall into the wrong hands and cause harm,” said Hall from a podium that was actually the latest drop box still under construction. Last fall almost three tons of prescription drugs were taken in from the 26-county southwest Virginia region on a Take Back Day. “How many single pill bottles does it take to get to almost three tons,” asked Hall rhetorically.
The hope is to find money to put professionally made drop boxes in the region in numerous places, with the help of grant funding. The Walgreens on Williamson Road does have a drop box for unused prescription drugs that is available. There’s another at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. “That’s three [drop boxes] in a place that has tremendous demand from people that want to turn in their unused prescriptions,” said Hall. He would like to see more local pharmacies install drop boxes, calling them “uniquely qualified to handle them.”
The Prevention Council of Roanoke County is conducting a letter writing campaign focused at the four largest pharmacy chains (which includes Kroger), urging them to consider the installation of drop boxes. Getting more legal opioids off the street and out of home medicine cabinets is “a key to mitigating some of the problems we’re seeing in our community,” said Hall.
Gene Marrano
