PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISPOSAL PROGRAM UP AND RUNNING IN STEPHENS CO.

A program is now underway to collect and properly dispose of prescription drugs.

The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal, or P2D2 Program, celebrated the unveiling of its first drop-off point in Stephens County Thursday with a Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting.

The Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition is coordinating the program locally.

The first drop-off point is in the lobby of the Toccoa Police Department.

Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire said his department is proud to be involved.

“So many people have leftover medications and prescription drugs and do not know what to do with them and we sure do not want those kinds of drugs flushed down into the water system because they end up in Lake Hartwell and everywhere else,” said Whitmire. “It’s getting to be a problem all over the country.”

It is the brainchild of an Illinois schoolteacher who, along with his students, wanted to come up with a way to keep unused prescriptions out of the water supply and out of the wrong hands.

The program allows individuals to drop off unused prescription medications in the boxes for law enforcement to collect them and dispose of them properly.

Danny Yearwood with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition said they hope to grow the program in the future.

He said the goal is to mark a day on the calendar, perhaps this month, to have as an official drop-off day and heavily promote the program.

Yearwood said he hopes everyone can get involved.

“We hope all of the businesses and families on that day, if they have any unused prescription or over-the-counter medications, drop them off, so that we have them incinerated, so kids do not have the opportunity to pick them up,” said Yearwood.

For the time being, more drop-off points are planned in Stephens County. Yearwood said the next one is scheduled to be set up at the Stephens County Detention Center with the help of the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.