LaGrange police install secure drop-box for unused drugs

The LaGrange Police Department announced that a secure drop-box for unused prescription medication has been installed in the main lobby of the department’s headquarters.

“This box provides a safe way for citizens to dispose of any unused prescription medications they may not need anymore,” the department said in a Facebook post.

The boxes are part of a nationwide effort to confront a prescription drug epidemic that has killed thousands and afflicted 2 million Americans.

“Across the country as many as 50,000 people accidentally overdose every year. Many of these are as a result of medications found within our own homes and are easily preventable,” the department said.

The box will be available 24 hours a day, but police ask that no liquids, pressurized medications (like inhalers) or used needles be disposed of in the box.

The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office installed the first of two such boxes in Columbus back in 2013. One is now on the fourth floor of the Government Center and another is at the Citizens Service Center on Macon Road.

This story was originally published June 27, 2017 at 8:31 AM with the headline "LaGrange police install secure drop-box for unused drugs."