Sturdy Memorial Hospital Receives Donation from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care for Community Unused Medication Collection Program

Attleboro, MA, October 4, 2019 - Sturdy Memorial Hospital’s Community Unused Medication Collection Program ensures that people in our community have a safe and convenient way to properly dispose of unused prescription drugs, controlled prescription drugs such as opioids and over-the-counter medications. This service is free to the public and will help to address prescription drug abuse, accidental poisoning and environmental hazards such as water contamination due to improper disposal of medications.

When medicines are no longer needed, they should be disposed of promptly. People are urged to remove expired, unwanted, or unused medicines from their home as quickly as possible to help reduce the chance that others accidentally take or intentionally misuse the unneeded medicine, and to help reduce drugs from entering the environment.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), prescription drug misuse can have serious medical consequences. Increases in prescription drug misuse over the last 15 years are reflected in increased emergency room visits, overdose deaths associated with prescription drugs, and treatment admissions for prescription drug use disorders, the most severe form of which is addiction. Among those who reported past-year nonmedical use of a prescription drug, nearly 12 percent met criteria for prescription drug use disorder. Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have more than quadrupled since 1999 and have outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine since 2002.

The kiosk is located in the Emergency Department at Sturdy Memorial Hospital and is available to drop off unused medication 24-hours a day.