Drug Take-Back Program

About

Clallam County Sheriff and Jim's Pharmacy are collaborating to make the drop-off process easy, convenient, and safer for our communities. Making it easy for people to dispose of controlled medications reduces their availability to those that would abuse them helping those individuals and the community.

Join the Sheriff's Office to reduce drug abuse, accidental poisonings, and to maintain water quality by disposing of your unused drugs at one of our approved Drop Off locations.

Spread the word to friends and relatives: Don't flush them, Drug Take-Back is now available in Clallam County.

Disposal Programs: Why Are They Needed?

Unwanted and outdated pharmaceuticals pose serious safety and environmental threats ranging from child poisonings, illegal use, and contamination of our streams and drinking water.

  • Unwanted pharmaceuticals should not be poured down the sink or flushed down the toilet. Modern wastewater treatment plants are not effective at eliminating all pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater, whether passed through the body or flushed down the toilet. Pharmaceuticals are now found at very low levels in surface waters, streams, septic tanks, tap water, and wastewater effluent. Not enough to induce acute effects in humans as of yet (far below prescription dose) they have been found to affect aquatic ecosystems.
  • Drugs (prescription and non-prescription) are involved in more than half of the unintentional child poisoning incidents. Annual statistics for children include:
    • 30 related deaths.
    • 80,000 treated in emergency rooms.
    • 2 million calls to poison control centers by concerned parents.
  • Prescription drug is a growing problem in our communities. Drug overdoses have surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in Washington State. For first-time users, there are as many abusers of prescription drugs as using marijuana.

Drop Off Locations: Clallam County

All Forms of Prescription and Illicit Drugs are accepted at the Drop Box locations listed. Don't Flush! Drop it off today! Drop them in the green box, no questions asked.Drop Off Locations Green Box

Note: Needles and other injection equipment are not accepted. "Sharps" containers are available commercially at your local pharmacy.

  • Clallam County Sheriff's Office: (All unused or expired drugs)
    • Clallam County Sheriff’s Office
      223 E 4th Street, Suite 12
      Port Angeles, WA 98362-3015
      Map to Location

      Hours
      Monday through Friday
      8:30 am to 4:30 pm
  • Drop Off for Non-Narcotic Pharmaceuticals only:

Other locations will be added as needed or requested.

Federal Controlled Substances Act

On September 29, 2010, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill that helps Washington’s communities by removing a key barrier to creating a statewide program to safely return and dispose of left-over medications. The President signed the "Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010" into law on October 12, 2010.

Congress took action to support the creation of medicine take-back options that reduce prescription drug abuse and reduce the number of pharmaceuticals getting into the environment.

While this new law does not create or pay for medicine take-back programs, it does remove the restriction that only law enforcement take-back programs can collect highly addictive narcotics and other controlled substances from residents.

Once the new law is implemented, providers of medicine take-back programs will have more options for where and how they set up programs that accept controlled substances.

Good Medicine, Bad Behavior: Drug Diversion in America

Created to educate and increase awareness of the potential abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website provides a wealth of information on prescription drugs and their effect on society.

Learn more about:

Pill Identification

The pill identifier website may help you identify what you have so you can dispose of it properly.

  • What are those unlabeled pills in the medicine cabinet?
  • Did you find pills in your teenager's room?

Note: The Clallam County Sheriff's Office does not endorse the accuracy of this or any other pill identification website. If you are unsure or still have questions about the identity of any prescription drug please contact your doctor or pharmacist.