Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River

FNFSR Alert
National Drug Take Back Day in Shenandoah County

On September 25 Friends co-hosted a National Drug Take Back Day with Shenandoah County Sheriffs office and the Drug Enforcement Administration.  The day was a huge success!  More than 70 lbs. of pharmaceuticals were collected and will be disposed of properly rather than misused or flushed down the toilet. 

TV 3 out of Harrisonburg and local newspapers provided great news coverage of the event and you can see the video clips at the links below:

TV3 National Take Back Initiative

TV 3 Residents Cleared Out Cabinets for National Take Back Day


Thanks to Sheriff Tim Carter and his staff for working with Friends to make this happen.  We hope to work with the Sheriff to bring more take back opportunities in the future.

What do I do with my old and unused medications?

Walton and Smoot Pharmacy at  109 S Main St, Woodstock, VA 22664 will take them back for you.  Just visit their location in Woodstock to dispose of your prescriptions.  Patients of any pharmacy can bring in unused or expired medications. The drugs should be in their original stock containers.  Pharmacists have to be able to see the drugs because they can’t accept any controlled drugs.  Read more at http://www.disposemymeds.org/

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Although this effort is a nationwide event, promoting a local collection site is intended to assist citizens of Shenandoah County in removing potentially dangerous controlled substances from their homes and prevent their unintended use, abuse or introduction into the North Fork of the Shenandoah. Medicines left around the home are highly susceptible to misuse and abuse. A significant portion of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet. Unused and improperly discarded pharmaceuticals pose a major public health and safety risk and can contaminate our rivers and our drinking water. If these drugs are flushed down the toilet, they pass through waste water treatment plants and end up in our rivers, which are the source of drinking water for many of our citizens.

Procedures established by the DEA are as follows:

• This program is entirely voluntary and anonymous. Every effort will be made to protect the privacy of individuals disposing of medications.
•  Expired, unused or unwanted prescription and over the counter solid dosage (tablets and capsules) medications will be accepted.   Medications may be disposed of in their original containers (remove personal information) or by removing the medication from the container and dumping directly into the disposal box at the collection site.
• Liquid products, such as cough syrup, should remain sealed in their original container, with the cap tightly sealed to prevent leakage.
• Intravenous solutions, injectibles, and syringes will not be accepted.
• Illegal or illicit substances such as marijuana or methamphetamine will not be accepted.
• Collected medicines will be incinerated in accordance with all applicable state and federal regulations.

Do you have pharmaceuticals that you need to dispose of and don’t know how?

Open the PDF file at the right for information to help you rid your cabinet of the drugs and keep them out of our waterways. Or you can look at how the FDA suggests that you dispose of your drugs at this link: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm101653.htm