More than 1,000 pounds of unwanted medication were collected in Dresden on Saturday — a Muskingum County record — during a National Prescription Drug Take Back Day event paired with a ceremony recognizing longtime deputy leadership in drug enforcement.
Tri-Valley junior high and high school students staffed the collection, handing out Deterra drug-deactivation bags, medication lock boxes, and resource cards for local mental health, counseling, and drug and alcohol services alongside the drop-off itself.
The ceremony honored Dave Kreis, who is retiring, as speakers recounted a career that included a wiretap-and-undercover operation in Morgan County and a six-year investigation known as the New Matamoras case, described as breaking up what was called the biggest drug family in Ohio at the time.
Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch recalled arriving as a new attorney to find Kreis doing prisoner transport, then being taken along on an opiate buy that helped him learn how undercover drug work actually runs. The throughline of the tributes was a deputy whose enforcement work stayed focused on protecting local families.
Sheriff’s officials used the day to underline how take-back collections fit the same mission: every pound of expired or unneeded medication dropped off is medication that cannot be misused at home, shared, or flushed into local waterways.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is held each spring and fall, coordinated nationally with the Drug Enforcement Administration and run locally by law enforcement agencies like the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office. Collection sites accept tablets, capsules, patches, and other solid prescription medicines, and the collected material is destroyed rather than stored.
The Deterra bags handed out in Dresden give residents a way to handle leftovers at home between collection days: medication is placed in the pouch with water, sealed, and thrown away with household trash after the system deactivates the drugs. The free medication lock boxes distributed at the event are aimed at homes with children, teenagers, or visiting grandchildren.
Residents who missed Saturday’s event do not have to wait for the next national collection day. Permanent drug drop boxes are available year-round in the lobby of the Muskingum County Jail in Zanesville and at the Dresden and Frazeysburg police departments.