PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scioto County residents could safely clear out unused and expired prescription medicines on Saturday, Oct. 24, as the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office took part in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in Portsmouth. The collection ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the sheriff’s office at 1025 16th Street, set up as a drive-thru and offered free and anonymously, with no questions asked, Sheriff David Thoroughman announced.
Thoroughman urged families to use the few minutes the stop takes to reduce a risk that often sits unnoticed at home. “Medicine cabinets across Scioto County are full of medications that are no longer needed, and every one of them is a risk,” he said in the sheriff’s office release. “Take Back Day is a simple way for families to make their homes safer and keep these drugs out of the wrong hands.”
The sheriff’s office said unused and expired prescription medications are a public safety concern because they can lead to accidental poisonings, overdoses and abuse, and that prescription drugs can be just as dangerous as illegal drugs when taken without a prescription or a doctor’s supervision. Officials noted that many teenagers who misuse prescription drugs get them from family and friends, often straight from the home medicine cabinet, making regular cleanouts an important prevention step.
Throwing old medicine away at home is not a safe alternative, according to the sheriff’s office. Medications tossed in household trash can be retrieved, misused or illegally sold, the office said, while flushing them can contaminate local water supplies. Handing medications over for proper disposal, officials said, protects both people and the environment, and Thoroughman added a direct appeal: “Please take a few minutes on October 24 to clean out your medicine cabinet. It could save a life.”
Saturday’s collection was the 31st National Prescription Drug Take Back Day since the DEA launched the program in 2010. The take-back is held each spring and fall at thousands of sites nationwide, where local agencies partner with the federal campaign to collect medications that might otherwise linger in homes long after they are prescribed.
The national totals show the scale of that effort. At the most recent Take Back Day in April, the DEA and more than 4,300 law enforcement agencies collected over 642,000 pounds of unwanted medications at more than 4,400 collection sites, and since the program began, more than 21 million pounds have been collected nationally, according to DEA figures cited in coverage of the Scioto County event.
For Scioto County households that took part, the process was deliberately simple: gather medications that are expired or no longer needed, drive to the sheriff’s office on 16th Street during the four-hour window, and hand them over without cost or questions. The sheriff’s office, reachable at 740-355-8261, presented the day as a small household task with an outsized payoff — fewer dangerous drugs within reach at home, and fewer chances for a leftover prescription to cause harm.