TRAVERSE CITY -- What's in your medicine cabinet? Your parents' medicine cabinet?
Unused or expired medication does not belong there and Operation Medicine Cabinet wants to help. Instead of posing a health hazard to others -- whether seniors confusing medications or tempted teens, curious children or unethical house guests -- these prescription or over-the-counter items can be disposed of safely and legally.
Home Instead Senior Care in Traverse City is hosting the initiative, which will be held Friday at the Holiday Inn. Bottles of pills or liquid medications will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Holiday Inn on East Front Street in Traverse City. The program is free and participants simply drop off items -- a drive-up is also available -- no paperwork is needed.
The Operation Medicine Cabinet concept opened the eyes of Janis Russell, owner of the local Home Instead, part of the world's largest network of home care companies. She is bringing more than a dozen bottles of her mother's unneeded prescriptions. Previously, she found in her parent's medicine cabinet a bottle of Bayer aspirin that expired in 1946.
"It's estimated that 28 percent of hospital admissions for seniors are from medication mistakes, wrong ones or too much," Russell said. "I had a lady call this morning and she said, 'I have a medicine cabinet with Vicodin and I have two grandsons -- can I bring it in?'"
All medications received will be cremated at the end of the day. This approach is better for the environment versus throwing away or flushing the drugs, where they can impact either animals via landfills or the watershed.
Co-sponsors of Operation Medicine Cabinet include the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Office, Traverse City Police Department, The Prescription Shop, Great Lakes Pet Memorial and Crematory, Life Story Funeral Home and the Holiday Inn. The endeavor is offered by many Home Instead businesses nationwide as a community service and outreach.
The police departments are involved because the Drug Enforcement Agency requires that they supervise a project like Operation Medicine Cabinet. Russell explained the idea to local law enforcement, who researched her proposal and agreed to help. The take can be substantial: a similar operation in Oakland County destroyed 70 pounds of medication.
"I'll oversee the entire operation and I will see that the destruction of medications goes according to law," said Lt. Jim MacKinnon, of the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office, who will work with an officer from the Traverse City Police Department.
Pharmacist Kathy Hatfield of The Prescription Shop, will also attend the event, which Russell hopes to hold annually. Hatfield noted another common medication lurking in medicine cabinets: leftover antibiotics, many prescriptions years old.
"I think a lot of times people start to feel better and they don't finish their antibiotics and they keep them," she said. "Then if they feel sick again, even years later, they might take it again but they wouldn't have enough to complete a full course."
If you go
-- What: Operation Medicine Cabinet
-- Why: Drop off unused or expired medications, drive up available
-- When: Friday, Nov. 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
-- Where: Holiday Inn, 615 E. Front St, Traverse City
-- Cost: None
-- Info: Home Instead Senior Care at 421-5550
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