EDWARDSVILLE - For some people, particularly teenagers, their first exposure to addictive drugs is in their home's medicine cabinet.
In their efforts to prevent people from abusing these drugs and moving on to stronger opiates like heroin, Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons, Coroner Steve Nonn, Sheriff John Lakin, along with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, have joined together for National Drug Take-Back Day.
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People from around the region were invited to come to the a special drug drop-off site set up behind the County Administration Building in Edwardsville for an opportunity to safely dispose of unwanted or unneeded medicine, including over the counter medications, vitamins, liquids, narcotics, cough syrup, prescription medicines, hormones, painkillers, antibiotics, ointments, as well as any unidentifiable pills.
"We're trying to take some of the prescriptive drug medications that could possibly fall into the hands of the wrong people," Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn said. "We're preventing someone from getting addicted to those prescription drugs, and if they run out of that, they would potentially go and purchase buttons of heroin to fuel their addiction.
"We don't want people to become accidental drug dealers," Nonn said. "Hopefully, this event helps if it can stop just one person from being addicted to opiate-based drugs."
"Madison County had the second highest number of opiate-based painkillers prescribed by county in the United States," Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons said.
Many recognize that the opioid epidemic that has rattled our area is not just simply a criminal problem, and all of the offices within the Madison County government, including Gibbon's office, the sheriff's office, as well as local treatment providers, are hoping to solve this issue and save lives.
"We recognized early on that it takes a comprehensive approach to this problem. We used a three-pronged strategy of treatment, education and enforcement, and through the Partnership for Drug Free Communities, which is the umbrella organization we participate with, we bring together those disciplines and make sure we're working together to tackle this problem."
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