Archive: Around Town

You could say that a bunch of drug dealers were operating in the Lansing Town Hall Saturday right under the nose of a Deputy Sheriff.  But instead of selling drugs, these dealers were collecting them.  53 people dropped off enough medications to fill three and a quarter garbage bags Saturday in Lansing alone.  Lansing was one of three drop-off points in Tompkins County for safe medication disposal.

"This is about the fourth collection we've done," explains Lifelong's Executive Director Diane Dawson, who led about a half dozen volunteers in Lansing.  "We've collected 4,100 pounds of medication, keeping them out of harms way away from young children, the elderly, keeping them out of the environment, out of landfills, out of compost.  It's a great community-wide effort."

Lifelong is a participant in the Tompkins County Safe Medication Disposal Coalition, led by the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility's Ed Gottlieb.  Representatives from Tompkins County Area Transit (TCAT), Tompkins County Sheriff Department, Tompkins County Health Department, Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division, Cornell University, Lifelong, the Community Coalition for Healthy Youth, and the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility. 


Prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, and pet medicines were all accepted.  People were encouraged to cross off their names and personal information on medicine bottles and containers, but to leave the information about the medication and dosage.  Mercury products including thermometers, needles, and medical waste were not accepted.  Pills, creams, liquids, and pet medications were all collected in Lansing.

People dropping off medication were asked a few survey questions.  Dawson says the information is kept anonymous.  The process was kept as simple as could be -- drop off your medications and leave.

All three locations were monitored by law enforcement and disposed of properly according to DEC and Department of health regulations.  Tompkins County Sheriff's Deputies monitored the Lansing site, the Dryden Police the Dryden sites, and an Ithaca Police office monitored the TCAT garage.  That meant that people who came to Lansing to drop off drugs early had to wait for the arrival of a Deputy Sheriff.

All the drugs were taken to the TCAT facility, from which they were taken to an incineration facility, again with a police escort.  Across all three collection points 834 pounds of drugs were collected, including 12,700 doses of controlled substances.  A total of 409 people dropped off drugs county-wide, two thirds of which participated in the event for the first time.

"The results of our fourth collection event were tremendous," Gottlieb says.  "The continued large turn out shows the ongoing need for this important public service.  We will continue our efforts and work to make the safe disposal of unwanted household medications even more convenient to the public."

The half dozen volunteers in Lansing came from the town government, RSVP (Lifelong's Retired Senior Volunteer Program), and the Lansing community.

Each year the community drop off points change.   Last year Trumansburg and Newfield hosted drop-off sites, and Saturday Dryden and Lansing. 

"We're going to try to keep moving them around, but we'll always have the TCAT site downtown," Dawson says.  She adds that using this service to dispose of unused medications is great for people and the environment.  "It won't get into the water system or into our gardens or into the lake.  It's good environmental protection and it protects people from hazardous overdose."

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