Tennessee American Water Encourages Residents To Participate In National Drug Take Back Day

  • Friday, October 14, 2016

The National Drug Take Back for the fall will be held on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

"The purpose of this event is to keep drugs out of the environment and off of our streets," officials said.

Four of the locations will also include document shredders provided by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, Division of Consumer Affairs. 

"The local Drug Take Back program offers citizens a chance to safely and conveniently dispose of unwanted, unused prescription or over-the-counter drugs (for both pets and people) and avoid misuse or unintentional harm to families, pets and the environment," officials said.

“Experience shows that the most effective and cost-efficient way to ensure high-quality water at the tap is to keep our source waters clean. We support this partnership because it helps spread an important message to the public: Don't flush medications down the toilet, where they would eventually end up in our waterways,” said Valoria Armstrong, president of Tennessee American Water. 

Local residents are encouraged to participate by dropping off medications for proper disposal at one of the 11 Hamilton County area locations.  There are also three sites in Bradley County, one in Marion County and one in Polk County.  Sites in green will have document shredders available for personal documents such as tax information or medical records.

“Properly disposing of medication reduces the chance of teenage experimentation and overdose.  We encourage residents to take advantage of the drug take back day by simply driving to one of the locations and dropping off medication with no questions asked,” said Camilla Bibbs, executive director of the Hamilton County Coalition.

"The program has positive community and environmental benefits.  Having unused or expired medications in the home can lead to medication errors, accidental overdoses, or inappropriate use/abuse.  In a well-intentioned effort to avoid these problems, many people flush unwanted medications down the toilet as a means of disposal.  However, flushing medications means that traces of these drugs eventually end up back in the environment," officials said.

Sites in Hamilton County:

Walgreens in Hixson - 5478 TN Hwy. 153 

Walgreens in East Brainerd - 2289 Gunbarrel Road

Walgreens in Northshore – 110 North Market St.

Mt. Canaan Baptist Church– 4801 Hwy. 58 

Red Bank Food City  - 3901 Dayton Blvd. 

Signal Mtn. Police Dept. -1111 Ridgeway Ave.

Walgreens in Brainerd - 3605 Brainerd Road 

Walgreens in East Ridge - 5301 Ringgold Road 

Walgreens in Ooltewah - 9307 County Hwy. 

Walgreens in St. Elmo – 3550 Broad St.

Walgreens in Soddy Daisy – 121 Harrison Ln.

Sites in Bradley County:

Walgreens in Cleveland – 35 25th St., Cleveland

Cleveland Police Department - 10 Church St., NE

Bradley County Sheriff’s Office – 2290 Blythe Ave., SE

Site in Polk County:

First Baptist Church – 2498 Parksville Road, Benton

Site in Marion County:

Whitwell Police Department - 1361 TN-28, Whitwell

Along with Tennessee American Water, other sponsors for the Drug Take Back are: 

Bradley County Sheriff’s Office;

Chattanooga Police Department;

City of Chattanooga;

Drug Enforcement Administration;

East Ridge Police Department;

Hamilton County Coalition;

Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office;

Red Bank Police Department;

Signal Mountain Police Department;

Soddy Daisy Police Department;

Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance’s Division of Consumer Affairs;

Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services;

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation;

TDOT;

Walgreens; and 

Whitwell Police Department.

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