News

Public safety building in New Mexico city offers drug disposal kiosk

October 28, 2016

The Bayard Public Safety Building in Silver City, N.M. now has a MedRetun kiosk offering convenient drug disposal for over-the-counter and prescription drugs, available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to The Silver City Sun-News.

Bayard Police Chief Willy Kerin said the office routinely receives calls from the public on how to dispose of prescriptions after a family member with a long-term illness has passed away. This kiosk provides for safe disposal.

The prescription drug disposal kiosk was made possible by a community effort led by the Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (YSAPC), the city of Bayard and the Bayard Police Department. This is the second medication disposal kiosk to be installed in Silver City.

The MedReturn kiosk was installed in time to celebrate National Drug Take Back Day. Last year, more than 2,000 pounds of unused or expired prescription drugs were collected in southern New Mexico, of about the 5,700 pounds collected in the entire state.

Kerin urges the public to make use of the new disposal kiosk. "Don’t flush any unused medications down the toilet or throw them out in the trash; they can get in the water table or eaten by animals," he said.

The new disposal kiosk removes any chance of future misuse or pollution since the medications are destroyed using U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration protocols. The disposed medications will be counted and weighed on a new scale that was also donated to the Bayard Police Department by the Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey.

“MedReturn, a division of Frank Mayer & Associates Inc., has worked with over 3,000 coalitions and/or law enforcement agencies to get MedReturn Drug Collection Units placed in their communities. Law enforcement agencies can collect unwanted or expired prescription, over-the-counter, and other unused household medication with these kiosks, keeping these drugs not only out of the water supply, but most importantly off the streets to combat prescription drug abuse” Cindy Loyda at MedReturn, LLC, told Kiosk Marketplace.