Reducing Substance Abuse
Related Emergencies
A
nother way to reduce substance abuse
related emergencies is to reduce the
amount of unused or expired drugs in
people’s homes, which can be a tempta-
tion for substance abusers. Over the past three years,
Lake County Municipal Police Departments have
demonstrated leadership by steadily increasing the
Prescription Drop Boxes
Prescription Drop Boxes
number of prescription drug disposal boxes in their
lobbies. Growth in prescription and non-prescription drugs collected at public disposal boxes is the result of a
collaboration by the Lake County Underage Drinking and Drug Prevention Task Force, municipal police departments
in Lake County, the Health Department, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office, the Solid Waste Agency of Lake
County and the Lake County Sheriff’s Department.
From February through December of 2015, more than
11,000 pounds of drugs were collected at 27 different
municipal police department boxes. That total is up 26
percent from 2014. Of that total, approximately 55
pounds were controlled substances with a street value of
more than $750,000. An established chain of custody
allows law enforcement to collect the drugs as well as
monitor the sorting of medications to distinguish between
addictive (i.e., fentanyl, codeine, Vicodin, oxycodone) and
non-addictive drugs.
Since 2011, the number of disposal boxes has increased
from 9 to 27, and since 2011, the annual number of
reported deaths due to prescription drugs has declined
from 41 to an estimated 18 in 2015. Drug disposal boxes
are at the following police departments: Antioch, Buffalo
Grove, Deerfield, Fox Lake, Grayslake, Hawthorn Woods,
Prescription drug disposal boxes,
Highland Park, Island Lake, Lake Bluff, Lake County, Lake
such as this one, have helped reduce
Forest, Lake Villa, Lake Zurich, Lakemoor, Libertyville,
substance abuse related
emergencies and deaths in Lake
County.
Lincolnshire, Lindenhurst, Mundelein, North Chicago,
Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Park, Round Lake, Vernon
Hills, Wauconda, Waukegan, Winthrop Harbor and Zion.
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