Speedway police to open prescription drug drop-off

Speedway police will join a list of law enforcement agencies that have installed a drop box for unwanted prescription drugs.

Town Manager Ian Nicolini said the council approved the drop-off site after collecting 300 pounds of pills on National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day in April. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration organizes the event twice a year and collected 12 million tons in Indiana in the spring.

“That showed us the need,” Nicolini said. “They are becoming increasingly common.”

Police Lt. Trent Theobald said officials are still trying to determine the size and type of box to purchase but said it could be installed within a month at the police station, 1410 N. Lynhurst Drive.

In the past few months, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Lawrence and Zionsville police departments have put drop boxes at their stations. Fishers has had a drop box since 2011, and Hendricks County has four boxes.

Randy Miller, executive director of Drug Free Marion County, said agencies in the county have been slow to put in collection sites compared with the rest of the state.

“But we are beginning to make some inroads here,” Miller said, adding that his office is in talks with Beech Grove about a box there.

The drop boxes are essentially mailboxes inside the police station where residents can get rid of old, unused and forgotten prescription drugs.

Dennis Wichern, assistant special agent in charge for the DEA in Indianapolis, said young children can find their way to forgotten prescription drugs if they aren’t removed from the house.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana has the 10th highest prescription ratio of any state, 109 per 100 residents. And more than 13,500 children 12 and younger were exposed to prescription drugs in 2013, according to the Indiana Poison Center.

Wichern said in most states more people die of drug overdoses than in car accidents. In 2010, the latest year for which figures were available, 22,000 people nationwide died of prescription overdoses. Opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone were responsible for three of every four of those deaths.

A study by the Trust for America’s Health in 2013 found that overdose deaths quadrupled in Indiana from 1999 to 2010, a jump larger than in all but three other states.

Overdoses rose from 3.2 per 100,000 residents in 1999 to 14.4 in 2010.

Marion County recorded 1,140 prescription drug overdose deaths from 2002 to 2011, according to the Center for Health Policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Hamilton County had 145 deaths from overdoses in that time and Hendricks County had 106, according to the study.

The Take-Back program started in 2010 with 37 Indiana police departments participating. Now, 70 take part. The amount of drugs taken in has increased from 2.4 tons to 12 tons last April.

“That is two full tractor-trailer trucks full of pills,” Wichern said.

The DEA wraps up the pills and sends them to the Covanta Incinerator plant on South Harding Street to be burned. Authorities said it is safer for them to burn the drugs than it is for residents to flush them down the toilet because of the possibility of contaminating the water supply.

At the Marion County Sheriff’s Office drop box, about 300 pounds of drugs have been collected since June, said Katie Carlson, a spokeswoman. Lebanon officials said they collect 35 pounds of pills a week.

In Speedway, Theobald said, there is no urgent drug problem, but the drop box seemed like a prudent move.

“It’s not a burning airplane issue here,” Theobald. “But like any community, there are an abundance of unused and forgotten drugs in medicine cabinets, and it is safer to get rid of them.”

The next Take-Back ay is Sept. 27.

Call Star reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @ john_tuohy.