The Lubbock Police Department, the Lubbock County VOICES Coalition and the YWCA presented a new drop box at the LPD property room Friday morning for residents to anonymously drop off old or expired prescription drugs.
“The purpose of the box is to help prevent misuse and abuse of prescription drugs and keep them out of the wrong hands as well as keeping them out of our water system and protecting our environment,” community coalition program director Teresa Alvarado said.
Alvarado said she has been working for six years on getting a drop box in the City of Lubbock and finally got the partnership and support of the LPD to make it happen.
“This is a convenient way for people to bring those and give those to us and put them in the lockbox there. And it’s quick, it’s easy, there’s no paperwork involved then we have a method of destroying those medications,” Lubbock Police Chief Greg Stevens said.
Chief Stevens said one of the best benefits of the drop box is anonymity; people can even drop of illegal drugs with no questions asked.
The Lubbock County VOICES Coalition preformed a community needs assessment and found that 16% of parents and 27% of teens believed using prescription drugs to get high is safer than using street drugs.
