Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

RXIQReporting in today's Everett Herald, Diana Hefley writes about Snohomish County's drug take-back program:

The medications were collected as part of Snohomish County's drug take-back program, a partnership between police and public health officials. The pilot project, started in December, is aimed at removing unused medications from Snohomish County homes.

Residents can drop off medications at lock boxes located at the county's 26 police stations. Participants should black out any personal information on containers but not the name of the medication. They don't need to provide their names, just a ZIP code.

Nearly 600 pounds of medication were collected in the first six months of the program.

Hefley points out how dangerous prescriptions pain pills can be:

Statistics show that people in Snohomish County are more likely to die from an accidental drug overdose than in a car crash. The majority of unintentional poisoning deaths are caused by opioids, such as Vicodin.

If you'd like to learn more about this program, call (425) 388-3199 or visit www.snoco.org. And if you'd like to learn more about the prescription drug abuse epidemic, we've posted lots of information at Prescription Drug Abuse.

-Dan Sytman-