Muskegon Area Medication Disposal Program Take Back Continues to Hit Record Numbers
The Muskegon Area Medication Disposal Program (MAMDP) held its final event of the year on Saturday, October 22nd in downtown Muskegon with over 290 participants who dropped off 989 pounds of non-controlled and 65 pounds of controlled medications. In addition to the one-day take back numbers, the team collected 665 pounds from community and Mercy Health retail pharmacies as well as 966 pounds from permanent law enforcement collection boxes.
The City of Muskegon hosted the event at the Fire Station, where participants drove through the fire department bays to drop off their unwanted materials. Several volunteers were on hand to greet participants, collect materials, and provide enforcement support. Mercy Health pharmacy volunteers helped classify the collected materials.
“We continue to provide the one-day take back events in conjunction with the national DEA events to capitalize on the public awareness of properly disposing unwanted medications,” said Carrie Uthe, Chair of the MAMDP initiative. “After each of the one-day events, our team evaluates if they are still necessary, and this last one certainly proved we should keep going.”
The MAMDP initiative was started in 2010. Since then, they’ve host several events per year and established permanent collection boxes at all Muskegon area law enforcement departments and several local pharmacies. To date, the group has collected well over 12.5 tons of materials. The Muskegon initiative has received national attention in the 2015 National Drug Control Strategy and listed as a best practice by the White House for Community Benefit projects.
