Fortuna Pill Round-Up

On Saturday May 21st from 9-2pm Fortuna Union High School District, in conjunction with Humboldt Waste Management Authority, The Fortuna Police Department, and Redwood Memorial Hospital, will be hosting a Pharmaceutical Pill Round Up at Fortuna Union High School in front of the Boy's gym. We would like to notify community members about our efforts to help remove unwanted, used, and outdated pharmaceuticals before they fall into the wrong hands.
Pharmaceutical abuse kills more people and destroys lives more than all illegal drugs combined. Humboldt County has a reputation of prescription drug abuse much like it does marijuana. In 2004, in a report released by Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services entitled "Paths To Prevention and Recovery, Alcohol and Drugs in Humboldt County," Humboldt County leads the USA in prescription narcotics per grams per 100,000 people in as recently as 1998-2001.
People often do not know how to properly dispose of prescription drugs often when they are disposed, they are dumped improperly in the trash, contaminating landfills, flushed down the toilet, which infiltrates our drinking water, or they are left in unchecked medicine cabinets, often for years, before they are consumed by teenagers and others. Please help us in our efforts to round up all unwanted, unused pharmaceuticals and prescription meds before they get into the wrong hands.
Bring all unused, unwanted, and unattended medication on Saturday, May 21st, from 9am to 2pm in front of the Damon Gym at Fortuna Union High School (379 12th st in Fortuna) and we will dispose of it for FREE. We ask that the materials are brought in the original containers with labeling intact. Patient’s names may be obliterated for confidentiality. No needles please. Any questions, please contact Gabe Bennett with Fortuna High School at 725-4461 x 3018 or School Resource Officer Charles Ellebrecht with the Fortuna Police Department at 725-7550 x 1445.