Beginning Monday, Mississippi residents will no longer have to resort to flushing or throwing away unused or old prescription medications.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Monday of each month, residents may drop off old medications at designated areas around the state, thanks to a new law that took effect last month.
The drugs will be collected by narcotics task force regional offices and taken to Jackson for incineration.
Pike County’s designated pill disposal station is the Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Enforcement Unit office at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks headquarters located at 1201 N. Clark Ave. in Magnolia beside Eva Gordon Elementary School.
Medicines that can be dropped off for disposal include tablets, capsules, liquids and creams. Citizens are requested not to bring needles or syringes for disposal.
The program came about with the passage of House Bill 423, authored by Rep. Sam Mims V, R-McComb, who House Public Health and Human Services committee chairman.
“It’s important the public knows this legislation is in effect,” he said. “We think this type of legislation can help improve the lives of all Mississippians.”
Backers of the new law said unused pills were falling into the hands of children and drug abusers, leading narcotics officials to call prescription drugs the most widely abused narcotics in the state.
Also, since there’s no protocol for disposing prescription medications until now, people had been throwing them away or flushing them down the toilet, which leads to soil and water contamination.
“We have a substantial substance drug abuse problem in Mississippi. This is a first step toward addressing this problem,” Mims said.
Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Task Force officer Tim Vanderslice said he expects a steady stream of people turning in their old medications on Monday.
“I think we’ll have a good turnout. People have a lot of medications in their homes and don’t know what do with them,” he said. “Once it catches on, I think it will be good.”
Vanderslice said there is no downside to the program.
“We don’t care who you are. We don’t want to know your name. Just put them in a box and we’ll destroy them for you,” he said.
The new pill disposal law was the culmination of roughly 18 months of work since Gillis Drug Store pharmacist Tara Hennington first approached Mims about such a law.
Hennington, along with a group of Parklane Academy students, visited the Capitol to explain to legislators the problems of prescription drug abuse and lobby for the passage of the bill.
“Representative Mims and I are both really glad this legislation passed and we have the support of the community as well as the legislators in Jackson,” Hennington said. “The easy part was passing the legislation because of all the hard work.”
Hennington agreed with Mims that education will be the key.
“We still have citizens who don’t realize the problem dumping medications can cause,” Hennington said. “If there is potential for abuse or misuse, old prescription drugs don’t need to be in the cabinet.”
HB 423 was patterned after Illinois’ Prescription Pill & Drug Disposal (P2D2) legislation. Illinois is the only other state to pass legislation.
“We can light a fire under the other states to get involved,” Hennington said. “Our citizens have a chance to make a difference, not only in this state, but the nation.”
