Archive: Around Town

The Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal reports that its fifth event, on April 28, eclipsed previous records. Most notably, the previous attendance record of 509 people was smashed, with participation at Saturday's event totaling 686 people at three collection locations: Ithaca, Groton, and Slaterville Springs.

"The number of participants was very impressive," says Coalition chair Ed Gottlieb, "It is particularly notable considering that the previous record was accomplished in six hours, and the new record was achieved in only four hours."

The TCAT garage site in Ithaca had 515 people drop off unwanted medicine for safe disposal (an average of about two cars/minute for four hours); another 101 dropped off in Slaterville Springs, and 70 in Groton. Two-thirds of those were participating for the very first time.

Gottlieb says, "The only problem we had was a result of the success. In the past, the longest wait time was five minutes. For a while, traffic backed up from TCAT to Route 13, which caused some to wait as long as twenty minutes." He says the Coalition will look for more volunteers at the next event to shorten the waiting time.

Another record smashed on Saturday; the amount of controlled substances disposed of safely. More than 22,000 doses of federally regulated medicine were brought in, far eclipsing the previous record of 16,629.

This collection event was done as part of a national effort to properly dispose of unwanted medicine, spearheaded by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. In past events, Tompkins County has collected more medicine than most counties in the country, even exceeding the total collected in the State of Rhode Island!

"We would like to thank everyone who made this event such a success," says Gottlieb, "Volunteers, the Tompkins County Sheriff, Ithaca Police, Groton Police, Slaterville Volunteer Fire Company, TCAT, and the many local businesses who donated equipment and food; and most of all in the community who made the effort to participate."

The next safe medication collection will likely be scheduled for this fall, although a date has yet to be announced. Please remember to hold onto expired or unwanted medicine for the next collection and do not throw it in the trash, or flush it down the toilet.

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