{"id":3490,"date":"2010-11-27T13:02:28","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T21:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=3490"},"modified":"2010-11-27T13:26:28","modified_gmt":"2010-11-27T21:26:28","slug":"news-brief-new-options-for-safe-disposal-of-old-medications-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=3490","title":{"rendered":"News brief: New options for safe disposal of old medications announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker<br \/>\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CHEHALIS &#8211; There are now four drop off sites locally where the public can safely get rid of old, unused or unwanted prescription medications, something authorities hope will reduce the potential for them to fall into the hands of children, teenagers or adults who might misuse them.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3489\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/2010.1124.drugbin_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3489\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3489\" title=\"Prescription bin\" src=\"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/2010.1124.drugbin_2.jpg\" alt=\"2010.1124.drugbin_2\" width=\"190\" height=\"282\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3489\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescription drug disposal bin<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The majority of teenagers abusing prescription drugs get them from family and friends, with the home medicine cabinet a primary source, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Their misuse now ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in the country, according to the D.E.A. In 2008, more than 500 individuals in the state lost their lives to accidental overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>The program, announced last week, is a partnership with the three law enforcement agencies and the Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Department. Funding came from the the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.<\/p>\n<p>Bins for safe and anonymous disposal are located at:<br \/>\n\u2022 Lewis County Law and Justice Center, (inside) 345 W. Main St., Chehalis<br \/>\n\u2022 Centralia Police Department, (outside) 316 N. Pearl Street, Centralia<br \/>\n\u2022 Morton Police Department, (outside) 260 Main St., Morton<br \/>\n\u2022 Lewis County Sheriff&#8217;s Office Packwood substation, (inside) 12990 U.S. Highway 12, Packwood<\/p>\n<p>In a joint news release, the four local agencies stated they hope citizens will take full advantage of the opportunity to safely dispose of these drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the bins will help protect the environment and drinking water supply, something that is harmed when unused medications are flushed down toilets or put in the trash, according to the news release.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis County is one of only seven counties in Washington with an unused medicine return program, according to the news release.<\/p>\n<p>For further information, contact Lewis County Public Health and Social Services at 360-740-1223.<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS &#8211; There are now four drop off sites locally where the public can safely get rid of old, unused or unwanted prescription medications, something authorities hope will reduce the potential for them to fall into the hands of children, teenagers or adults who might misuse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-3490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3490"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3499,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions\/3499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}