On the Job 

The two Drug Dropoff Day events hosted to date by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost have yielded more than 1,100 pounds of unused or expired prescription medications.

“There’s no better way to reduce the risk of these drugs ending up in the wrong hands,” Yost said. “We’re going to continue to do our part by providing Ohioans with regular opportunities to clean out their medicine cabinets and discard anything that’s expired or no longer needed.”

Dropoff events, he added, also help keep Ohioans from flushing unused or dated drugs down toilets, which is not environmentally friendly.

Most recently, for his second Drug Dropoff Day, AG Yost partnered with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Dayton 24/7 Now. The event, held Jan. 22 at three sites, elicited 710 pounds of medications and medical sharps.

A breakdown of the collections:

Dayton: 495 pounds of drugs and 40 pounds of sharps
Springfield: 63 pounds of drugs
New Carlisle: 112 pounds of drugs

The Attorney General’s Drug Dropoff Days are modeled after the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Drug Take Back Days, held during the spring and fall. With the DEA’s support, Attorney General Yost opted to give Ohioans additional disposal opportunities, adding events during the winter and summer.
The first AG Drug Dropoff Day took place on July 31 at two sites each in Franklin, Fayette and Scioto counties. Those collections weighed in at 446 pounds.

The five counties chosen for the first two events have one notable commonality: Their opioid death rates ranked among the top 10 based on a county-by-county analysis by AG Yost’s Scientific Committee on Opioid Prevention and Education (SCOPE) after a spike in opioid deaths in the second quarter of 2020.

SCOPE drives cutting-edge research and analysis of the opioid epidemic.

Opioids have wreaked havoc on many Ohioans’ lives, and the attorney general has made it a priority to ensure that the drug manufacturers and distributors responsible for fueling the devastation are held accountable.

In September, he won the support of local governments throughout Ohio to secure a major victory in the state’s opioid litigation. Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, three of the largest opioid distributors, agreed to pay Ohio $808 million over 18 years.

AG Yost’s third Drug Dropoff Day is being planned for this summer, again with the help of local law enforcement, media and other partners.