Drug Take Back Day This Saturday In Pocahontas County

Marlinton and Green Bank, WV – It’s drug take back day in Pocahontas County this Saturday, October 29th. Marilyn Norris with the Pocahontas County Prevention Coalition describes the event.

“We are going to participate with the DEA; they have scheduled another prescription drug take back day from 10am to 2pm,” says Norris. “We’re going to be having two sites here in Pocahontas County; we’re going to be at the Snowshoe Career Center in Marlinton and also at the Green Bank senior center.”

She says this is for any kind of pill, patches or other drugs prescribed by a doctor but no longer needed or wanted. She says there’s good reason to hold this kind of event.

“Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet,” she says. “We have medicine cabinets mostly in our bathrooms and that’s a pretty private place. So anyone that comes into your home and asks to use the bathroom whether it’s family member or a friend or a friend of your grandchild or the plumber who’s coming in to fix the pipes, they all have private access to anything that’s in your medicine cabinet.”

She says with this in mind, the Prevention Coalition has also seen an increase in demand for drug lockers’ a small plastic container for prescription drugs with a combination lock on the side.

“We dropped some off at all of our local doctor’s offices, we also went to the senior center in Marlinton and did a little program there and also at the senior center in Green Bank,” says Norris. “So we’re doing our best to get the information out into the community.”

They will not be able to accept needles or syringes during the event, but will information on hand regarding how to safely dispose of those items. Norris says this is truly a community effort.

“We’re doing this drug take back day in partnership with the Pocahontas County Sheriff’s dept, the Community Connections, the Pocahontas Family Resource network, the Snowshoe Career center and the Pocahontas County senior citizens,” she says. “So we’ll have two deputies working with us, one at each location; we’ll have Deputy Chris Cole and Deputy Bradley Nelson.”

Norris says the deputies will be there because they must legally take possession of the drugs before sending them to the DEA for destruction. For more information about the Pocahontas County Drug take back day, please call Marilyn Norris at 304-799-2509.