North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office will host Operation Medicine Drop event in Guilford County on Friday, April 22.
Commissioner Causey and Sheriff Danny Rogers will help residents dispose of outdated medicine and be available to the media at the Pleasant Garden Drug Store at 10 a.m. The take-back event will run until 2 p.m.
“An average of four people per day are dying from an overdose in North Carolina with 79 percent of those deaths involving some type of opioid,” said Commissioner Causey, who is also the director of Safe Kids NC. “Medications are the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths among children. I am touring the state to protect our communities and environment by informing residents about the responsible way to get rid of unused medications so they don’t end up in the wrong hands.”
Guilford County’s Alcohol and Drug Services is also participating in the drug take-back event.
Operation Medicine Drop (OMD) is a free drug take-back program that gives people a safe and secure way to dispose of unwanted over-the counter and prescription medications.
Since 2010, Operation Medicine Drop campaigns have successfully incinerated more than 266 million pills collected through permanent drop boxes and more than 4,000 events across North Carolina.
Operation Medicine Drop is a partnership between Safe Kids North Carolina (within the N.C. Department of Insurance), the North Carolina Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the State Bureau of Investigation.
For more information about Operation Medicine Drop including a list of permanent drop-off locations, click here.
The media is invited to attend and cover this event.
Here is Commissioner Causey’s public schedule for Friday, April 22:
10 a.m. – Pleasant Garden Drug Store 4822 Pleasant Garden Road, Pleasant Garden, N.C. 27313