Once again, Cleveland-area governments are joining with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Drug Take-Back Initiative (NTBI), offering a safe, convenient way to get rid of unwanted and expired prescription drugs. Local residents can take their leftover pills, liquids, syringes, inhalers and other medicines to a nearby collection site, where they will be accepted and disposed of, no questions asked.

Be safe: take your discarded drugs to a National Take-Back Initiative collection site. (Photo credit: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration)

Prescription drugs are an especially dangerous type of hazardous waste. They’re difficult to dispose of and dangerous to keep around the house.

• If discovered by children and pets, they can be poisonous, and the results can be fatal.
• If flushed into the sewer system, they contaminate the water supply, giving your neighbors unsuspected doses of narcotics, hormones, antibiotics and steroids.
• If tossed into the trash, they may end up in the hands of scavengers who will resell them.
• If they make it into the landfill, they’ll become toxic waste that contaminates soil and groundwater.

In cooperation with the drug take-back initiative, local communities have established collection sites throughout the region. (The DEA continues to add collection sites, so if you don’t find a convenient site in the lists that follow, check the NTBI search page.)

• Cuyahoga County sites (Cleveland east side)
• Cuyahoga County sites (Cleveland west side)
• Cuyahoga County sites (suburban)
• Geauga County sites
• Lake County sites

To view a map of a collection site, click on the site’s address.

Cuyahoga County/Cleveland East Side

• Cleveland Division of Police, 3rd District, 10700 Chester Avenue
• Cleveland Division of Police, 4th District, 9333 Kinsman Road
• Cleveland Division of Police, 5th District, 881 East 152nd Street

Cuyahoga County/Cleveland West Side

• Cleveland Division of Police, 1st District, 3895 West 130th Street
• Cleveland Division of Police, 2nd District, 3841 Fulton Road

Cuyahoga County/Suburban

• Bay Village: Bay Village Police Department, 28000 Wolf Road
• Bedford: Bedford Police Department, 165 Center Road
• Cuyahoga Heights: NE Ohio Regional Sewer District Environmental & Maintenance Services Center, 4747 East 49th Street
• Fairview Park: Fairview Park Police Department, 20777 Lorain Road
• Gates Mills: Gates Mills Police Department, 1470 Chagrin River Road
• Highland Heights: Highland Heights Police Department, 5827 Highland Road
• Independence: Independence Family Health Center, 5001 Rockside Road, Crown Centre II
• Lakewood: Lakewood Police Department, 12650 Detroit Avenue
• Lyndhurst: Lyndhurst Community Center (open 9 a.m.–12 noon), 1341 Parkview Drive
• Mayfield Heights: Mayfield Heights Police Department, 6154 Mayfield Road
• Mayfield Village: Mayfield Village Police Department, 620 SOM Center Road
• North Olmsted: North Olmsted Police Department, 27243 Lorain Road
• Olmsted Falls: Olmsted Falls Police Department, 26100 Bagley Road
• Rocky River: Rocky River Police Department, 21012 Hilliard Boulevard
• Solon: Solon Senior Center, 35000 Portz Parkway
• Strongsville: Strongsville Family Health & Surgery Center, 16761 South Park Center
• Strongsville: Strongsville Police Department, 18688 Royalton Road
• Westlake: Westlake Police Department, 27300 Hilliard Boulevard

Geauga County

• Russell: Russell Township Police Department, 14820 Chillicothe Road

Lake County

• Willoughby Hills: Willoughby Family Health Center, 2550 and 2570 SOM Center Road
• Eastlake, Madison, Mentor, Painesville, Kirtland, Willoughby, Willoughby Hills: the Lake County Opiate Task Force drug disposal drop-off bins at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments in Eastlake, Madison, Mentor, Willoughby, Willoughby Hills, and Lakeland Community College. (Click here for more information about the drop-off bins and here for a map of the bin locations.)

On the most recent National Drug Take-Back Day, April 28, 2012, participants turned in a record-breaking 276 tons of unwanted or expired medications for safe and proper disposal at more than 5,500 take-back sites in all 50 states and U.S. territories. In the four Take-Back Days to date, the DEA and its state, local, and tribal law-enforcement and community partners have removed over 1.5 million pounds — 774 tons — of medication from circulation.

For more information about the National Drug Take-Back Initiative, see the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration website. A complete list of collection sites nationwide is available through the NTBI search page.

Unused drugs are hazardous waste: keep them out of the wrong hands … keep them out of our water … keep them out of the landfill.