Upper Valley residents can safely and anonymously dispose of unwanted medications at Cascade Medical, starting later this month.
The blue MedSafe dropbox at Village Pharmacy will be installed at Cascade Medical’s main admitting lobby in late December. When the downtown pharmacy announced its closure, Cascade Medical volunteered to partner with Confluence Health Foundation, which owns the MedSafe box, to install and maintain the MedSafe box as a service to the community.
“It’s a matter of safety for our children, our community and our environment,” said Shawn Ottley, Chief Clinical Officer. “It’s important to us that Upper Valley residents have a resource to dispose of unused drugs.”
The goals of offering medication disposal are to prevent overdose, addiction and environmental contamination. When families can safely dispose of unused medications, it reduces the likelihood that a child might find a medication and overdose. It reduces the number of people who choose to flush medication into local watersheds, potentially contaminating our drinking water. Prompt medication disposal also reduces the risk of addiction and related crimes.
The MedSafe dropbox is intended for disposal of unused or expired medications, prescribed or over-the-counter. Medication can be dropped in the locked metal box and only removed by an authorized collector. MedSafe incinerates all medications to prevent them from cycling back into any potential water source.
The disposal box can accept: pills, capsules, ointments, creams, lotions, powders and liquid medicines less than 4 ounces.
The box cannot accept: aerosol spray cans, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, needles or syringes, mercury thermometers, batteries or durable medical equipment.
Cascade Medical is located at 817 Commercial Street. The MedSafe dropbox will be accessible during business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon.