Residents from all over Cass County did their part Saturday to help keep their community a little safer from drug abuse — one medicine cabinet at a time. 

Nearly 100 pounds of prescription medication was collected for disposal by county law enforcement agencies during last weekend’s National Drug Take-Back Day. In all, 94 pounds of pills, capsules and other forms of medication was handed over to police departments across the area — the largest amount of the nine times the county has participated in the Drug Enforcement Agency’s national take-back event, said organizer E.J. McAndrew.

“The biggest impact the event has the awareness that it creates,” she said. “It’s really about raising awareness of getting rid of medication safely, getting them off the street, and letting people know they are still drugs, and need to be taken and disposed of safely.”

The collection brings the total amount of pills collected from Cass County households during the semiannual take-back days up to 461 pounds, McAndrew said.

The county has been participating in the events since 2011, shortly after the formation of the C.A.S.S. Coalition, which helps coordinate the pill take back event in the county, along with other activities designed to combat drug use throughout the county. The first year of the take back, law enforcement disposed of 88 pounds of drugs, McAndrew said.

The C.A.S.S. Coalition has been proactive in their attempts to curb prescription drug abuse in Cass County, especially of highly addictive opioids such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. These kinds of pills are often gateway drugs to heroin, which is less expensive — and more deadly.

With the average Cass County household containing as many 200 prescription pills, 85 percent of which are painkilling medication, there’s still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to the number of pills collected during county take back days, McAndrew said.

“I’d love to see those numbers become much, much higher,” she said.

The C.A.S.S. Coalition will have its next meeting from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Nov. 19, at the Cass District Library in Cassopolis.

 

PILLS COLLECTED PER LOCATION

• Silver Creek Township: 36.8 pounds

• Howard Township: 20.6 pounds

• Marcellus Township: 6.4 pounds

• Ontwa Township: 26.2 pounds

• City of Dowagiac: 4 pounds