Today, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) and Covanta Energy in Tulsa held a Press Conference to mark the 10th Anniversary of a partnership aimed at reducing the theft and abuse of home prescription medication that is often targeted by teens or friends/relatives with an opioid addiction. In March of 2011, OBN started a program which involved installing permanent drug take-back boxes in law enforcement lobbies. OBN Spokesman Mark Woodward says it allows citizens to safely dispose unwanted home medication, year-round.
“Take-back days have been very successful, but we don’t want people stock-piling expired medication in their home for weeks or months until a take-back event is held in their community. These boxes provide citizens a simple and convenient way to drop off the medication in the law enforcement lobby on their way to work or while out running errands.” —Mark Woodward, OBN Spokesman
Woodward says the agency currently has 184 OBN drug disposal boxes located in law enforcement lobbies, including at least one in all 77 Oklahoma counties. Since the first box was installed in March of 2011, OBN has collected and safely disposed over 112 tons of medication dropped off by citizens. Woodward says the drugs collected from the program are transported to Covanta Energy in Tulsa for destruction.
“In 2011, Covanta Energy in Tulsa contacted OBN wanting to be a part of this effort. Covanta offered to safely destroy the drugs collected from the disposal containers at no cost to OBN or the state of Oklahoma. Our first load of collected medication was transported for destruction ten years ago this month.” —Mark Woodward, OBN Spokesman
This OBN/Covanta partnership earned the prestigious Henry Bellmon Award for Excellence in 2012.
“Covanta Tulsa is proud to partner with OBN to provide this service to Oklahomans. Waste-to-Energy facilities like Covanta Tulsa provide a safe and secure way to dispose of unwanted medications, while producing energy. It is our responsibility as stewards of the environment and good neighbors to prevent medications from ending up in our waterways and in the hands of the most vulnerable in our community.” — Patrick Walsh, Area Asset Manager, Covanta Tulsa Renewable Energy, LLC
In 2020, drug overdose deaths in the United States reached an all-time high at over 93,000 as Oklahoma also set a record of 1,002 drug-related fatalities. Often, fatal and non-fatal overdoses can be linked to medication stolen from a home. Studies show as many as 40 percent of American households have expired or unwanted medicine in need of disposal. According to surveys, nearly half of today’s youth (47%) say it is easy to obtain prescription drugs from a parent’s medicine cabinet, and 75% of heroin users reported they began their addiction by obtaining opioids from the medicine cabinets of family and friends. OBN Director Donnie Anderson says clearing household medicine cabinets of unwanted or expired medication is critical to limit the availability of dangerous prescription drugs that could end up on the streets or in schools.
“I am very proud of OBN’s Safe Trips for Scripts Program and I am extremely grateful to our partners at Covanta Energy for joining us in this critical effort. Mostly importantly, I want to thank the citizens of Oklahoma for their incredible response to this program over the past decade, and I want to encourage the public to keep doing their part. There is no way of knowing how many lives have been saved by getting these drugs out of home medicine cabinets around our state. But we know just one pill in the wrong hands could have the potential to take a life.” —Donnie Anderson, OBN Director
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has a list of the drop box locations on its web site at www.ok.gov/obndd
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