Cleaning house? Don’t forget medications.

Apr. 23, 2025

By Mary Wade Burnside

Is spring cleaning on your to-do list? Don’t forget your medicine cabinet.
If you have unused medications piling up, National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is almost here.
Five locations around Morgantown will be set up by the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department so people can drop off medications that are no longer being used. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 26.
Think this might not apply to you? You might want to reconsider that.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading cause of emergency department visits for adverse drug events are blood thinners, antibiotics, diabetes medications and opioid analgesics, such as tramadol or fentanyl.
And, notes the National Institute on Drug Abuse, many prescriptions, especially those to help individuals sleep or treat pain as well as anxiety and other mood disorders, are often misused. Keeping them in a safe place, or, if possible, safely getting rid of them if they are not being used, is important.
Children or people with memory issues, or just about anybody, can accidentally misuse a potentially dangerous drug that can be found in a home.
Coordinated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), this event is typically held twice a year, in April and October, to provide the opportunity for the safe disposal of drugs that might be around the house.
Drug take-back events are the No. 1 recommended way to dispose of drugs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to making a home safer for everyone, it’s also kinder to the environment to make sure drugs are safely disposed of.
The EPA also warns against flushing any drugs, unless instructions say to do so, so that medications do not reach the wastewater system.
The same could be said for just throwing away prescriptions, which could end up in a landfill and eventually get into a body of water.
An acceptable second choice requires a bit of a process to safely put them in the garbage. Guidance calls for taking the meds out of their original bottle, mingling them with a substance such as kitty litter or coffee grounds and then putting them in something like a plastic margarine container.
However, garbage disposal of drugs can also lead to dogs, cats and other animals getting sick if they decide to rummage through trash. Did you know that human medications are the leading cause of pet poisoning?
Both Monongalia County Health Department and the Monongalia County Quick Response Team (QRT) recommend a product to actually keep in your medicine cabinet at all times: naloxone. Naloxone, also known as Narcan in its nose spray form, reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and it’s important to have around. Just about anybody could get into a legitimately prescribed medication or take the incorrect dosage and need to be revived.
The Monongalia County QRT, funded with grants obtained by Monongalia County Health Department, just held a Free Naloxone Event on Friday. These events give us the opportunity to distribute naloxone and fentanyl test strips test strips, which can be used to make sure recreational drugs haven’t been unknowingly tainted with the deadly fentanyl.
Take back locations are the Monongalia County Sheriff's Office, Pierpont Landing Pharmacy, Suncrest Kroger Pharmacy, Mon Health Medical Center and Villages at Heritage Point.
If you can’t make it on April 26, both the Morgantown and Granville police
departments have year-round drop-off bins.
Check out the health department’s website at for more information on naloxone.

Mary Wade Burnside is the public information officer at Monongalia County Health Department.