Drug disposal box installed in Freeport to help combat prescription addiction

It looks as unobtrusive as a mailbox on the corner, but that blue metal box bolted to the floor of Freeport's police department is intended to deter drug abuse.

Now accounting for nearly as many deaths as traffic accidents nationally, drug overdose deaths continue to grow at alarming levels locally as well.

Armstrong County just announced an almost 50 percent spike in overdose deaths from 2015 to 2016, its largest one-year increase ever.

Overuse of prescription painkillers, considered a gateway drug to heroin, is one of the primary causes of drug overdoses in Armstrong County: Of the 41 deaths due to drug overdoses last year, prescription drugs were the leading cause in about one-quarter of those cases, according to Coroner Brian Myers.

“People need to know that the medications in their house can potentially be put to bad use,” Armstrong County District Attorney Scott Andreassi said.

Throwing them in the garbage poses a risk of someone finding them; flushing the drugs down a toilet pollutes local waterways.

Public education is ongoing, as is installation of medication collection boxes in rural areas like Armstrong County.

Freeport is the latest community in the county to get a collection box, adding to ones located in Apollo, Ford City, Kiski Township, Kittanning and Parks Township.

“For many, many years nobody saw their medicine cabinet as a potential source for drug addiction,” Andreassi said.

Drug-addicted adults and children frequently start their drug habit with prescription medications from family and friends, he said.

Then, when they run out of prescription drugs, they turn to heroin and other street drugs, which can be cheaper and more accessible, according to the Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission.

“If you have a full prescription of painkillers and are letting it sit in the cabinet, one of your loved ones could use it,” said Carrie Bence, deputy director of the commission.

“You hate to think that a relative could take from, say, their own grandparents, but it's been known to happen,” she said.

Bence said drug addicts in small towns frequently are not the stereotypical street person, but people who “might be functioning fine.”

If a household is known to have prescription medications, “they are subjecting themselves to a break-in,” she added.

Drug take-back days collect tons of medications, but the prescription boxes are installed to make it more convenient for people to drop off their unused medications, Andreassi said. Andreassi is a member of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, which has provided 382 boxes throughout the state since 2013.

Armstrong County's most popular prescription box is one located in ACMH Hospital in Kittanning.

Prescription drugs can be deposited in that box on a 24-hour basis because a police officer or security guard is always present.

All prescription dropoff boxes are bolted to a wall or floor and protected by law enforcement.

Convenience to residents is key, especially in a rural, spread-out county like Armstrong, said Andreassi.

In fact, the district attorneys association wants to install more boxes in rural areas, according to Richard Long, the district's executive director.

Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4691 or mthomas@tribweb.com.