Letter to the Editor

Drug Take Back effort nets 400 lbs. of medication

Friday, May 10, 2013

To the Editor:

I would like to personally thank everyone who participated in the Greencastle Police Department's Drug Take Back Event VI held on Saturday April 27, 2013.

I want to thank the Greencastle School Corporation for the use of the Greencastle High School and the parking lot for the event. This four-hour event saw approximately 130 vehicles utilize the site collecting 30 boxes of medication.

The Greencastle Police Department and the Putnam County Sheriff's Department also had medications dropped off at their agencies ahead of time prior to the event. In all, we collected approximately 400 pounds of medication. This past spring the four-hour collection period saw 47 vehicles and collected 422 pounds of medication.

This year's event brought in a new local partner, Buzzi Unicem, which has received the proper permits through IDEM to destroy all medications collected at this year's event.

The City of Greencastle and the Buzzi Unicem have an agreement that Buzzi will destroy all medications through their incinerator that gets collected at these events. I would like to thank Jim Payne and Bob West with Buzzi Unicem Alternate Fuels who have played a big part in getting this partnership established.

I would like to thank the following people and businesses for their assistance with this event -- Russ Hesler and Dan Green with the Greencastle School Corporation, Chief Deputy Tom Helmer with the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, Bobby Hopper with Greencastle McDonald's, S & W Feed Center for weighing all the boxes of medication, and Mary Williams with her assistance in passing out flyers in the northern part of Putnam County.

This event continues to be needed and well supported by this community, so I hope to continue to be a part of the Drug Take Back Day Program sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Thanks again for helping make Greencastle and Putnam County a safer place to live.

Chief Tom Sutherlin

Greencastle Police

Department