Hortonville offers 24/7 collection
Village of Hortonville citizens will no longer have to wait for a specific drug take-back day to clean out their medicine cabinets.
Citizens looking to dispose of excess and expired prescription and over-the-counter medications can now visit the safe and secure permanent drop-off location at the Village of Hortonville Municipal Building.
The collection site is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Drugs can be dropped off with no questions asked.
CVS Pharmacy and the Medication Disposal for Safer Communities Program has partnered with the Hortonville Police Department to establish a permanent MedReturn drug collection program. The drug collection unit is produced by MedReturn, LLC of Grafton.
The Hortonville Police Department says properly disposing of excess drugs is everyone’s responsibility as a public safety matter. Doing so reduces the supply of drugs that can potentially harm teens and adults.
According to the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), more than 6 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. Among youth who are 12 to 17 years old, 7.4 percent report past-year, non-medical use of prescription drugs.
More than 70 percent of young people abusing prescription pain relievers get them through friends or family, a statistic that includes raiding the family medicine cabinet.
More information on Hortonville’s service is available by contacting Officer Sean Stephens at 920-779-6165 or [email protected].
New London also collects drugs
At the July New London City Council meeting, New London Police Chief Jeff Schlueter reminded the public that New London Police Department has a prescription drug drop box.
“It’s open 8 a.m. to midnight,” Schlueter said. “People can drop it off and then what we will do is twice a year, we work with the Department of Justice where we dispose of them properly. I think last year we collected almost 900 pounds of medications. So if people want to drop them off, just bring them down to the police department and we’ll take them.”
Scott Bellile contributed to this story.