Preventing drug misuse: More than 100 pounds of medication collected at take back event
Published 12:06 am Wednesday, July 2, 2025
- Collected medicine during the take back event is placed in trash bags and incinerated. Pictured at the event are, from left, Kristen Estepp, Cpl. Heather Garrison, Alexis Parson-Adams, Iris Marroquin and Stephanie White. – Submitted
Karen Kistler
karen.kistler@salisburypost.com
Due to the joint effort of multiple organizations, a medication take back event was held June 25 at Moose Pharmacy in Salisbury, resulting in the safe disposal of 102 pounds of unused or expired medications.
In a release, it noted that the event was made possible through the partnership of Center for Prevention Services, Moose Pharmacy, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and YSUP Rowan, a local substance use prevention coalition.
These medication take back events are offered periodically, said Kristen Estepp, project director of YSUP Rowan, who said that this one was very successful.
This June collection was a pop up event, she said, noting that last year they hosted a weeklong take back in various locations of the county. They are in the planning stages of having another weeklong event later this year as well.
Estepp said that during last year’s weeklong take back they collected a little more than 200 pounds, so with this one being held for only two hours on one day, she said it was “extremely successful.”
The initiative provided community members with a safe and convenient way to dispose of medications that are no longer needed, helping to prevent accidental poisoning, misuse and environmental harm, the release said. Events like this are critical in reducing the risk of prescription drug misuse, particularly among youth, and in protecting our waterways from improper disposal methods like flushing or trashing medications.
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Estepp said having events such as these are important to get those expired and unused medicines out of the house “where seniors might accidentally take more than they need to or kids can get into cabinets and take something that looks like candy.”
And not just from a health standpoint, but it’s important to dispose of medication “in the right way where it doesn’t harm the environment,” she added.
A variety of medications were seen at the take back event, Estepp said, including lots of steroids and also lots of opioids as people bring in some that are out of date or they were prescribed some following surgery and didn’t need a whole bottle and they are getting it out of the house.
Other medications which they saw included cat medication, which she said happens as people drop off medicine, many of them being pain killers too, for their animals because they aren’t all taken or the animals have died. And this is fine, Estepp said, as she added that the “Sheriff’s Office will take all of that and they will actually incinerate it. So we collect everything except for sharps and inhalers, anything that has that combustible air.”
However, other than the sharps and inhalers, she said they will collect anything else including liquids.
“Collecting over 100 pounds of medications in a single day shows how much our community cares about safety and prevention,” said Estepp. “These efforts not only prevent drugs from falling into the wrong hands, but they also open the door for meaningful conversations about responsible medication use.”
As people dropped off their medications, she said they received many thank you’s for conducting this take back event as they had never heard of anything like it before and they didn’t know how to get rid of the medication.
Other conversations centered around educating the public, said Estepp, pointing out the different disposal boxes that are available year-round around the county. Therefore, if someone misses a take-back event, they can visit these anytime.
A list is available by searching for medication disposal locations in Rowan County.
“If we are not doing an event, there are disposal boxes around the county that someone can just drop off their medications in and we try to collect those boxes when we do a weeklong medication take back while we are there and clean them out,” she said.
Additional ways they educate them include how to dispose of their sharps along with other prevention that they are doing across the county.
Alexis Parson-Adams, who serves as the director for Prevention for Center for Prevention Services, added that “community events like this show the power of partnership. Each organization plays a key role in making sure unused medications are safely collected and disposed of. It’s a simple yet impactful way we can all work together to protect our families and our future.”
The organizations extend their gratitude to everyone who participated and supported this effort.
In addition to the take back events, Estepp said she does educational programs as people request them, which they can do by contacting her. She noted that the Center for Prevention Services and YSUP “work together a lot to get the needs met.”
For more information on local prevention efforts, contact Estepp at kristen@rowanysb.org.