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Wisconsin officials show what was collected on Drug Take Back Day, discuss opioid treatment plans

Some of the more than 50,000 pounds of unwanted prescription drugs taken in across the state last Saturday, during National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Chuck Quirmbach
/
WUWM
Some of the more than 50,000 pounds of unwanted prescription drugs taken in across the state last Saturday, during National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

State officials are showing off the haul of unwanted and unused prescription drugs taken back during last Saturday's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The media were invited into a site in Waukesha Monday where state workers and National Guard members transferred tens of thousands of pounds of old drugs into boxes. The drugs were wrapped in plastic before being sent to an incinerator in Indiana.

Danielle Long runs the Drug Take Back Day program for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. She says there's often a nasty assortment that comes in including powerful painkillers known as opioids.

"I've seen oxycodone. I've seen lots of different things today. I've seen entire boxes of fentanyl patches. So, we definitely know when we open those, we are seeing real medications that we're really pleased have been turned over for disposal," Long told reporters.

Drug Take Back Day events and sites that accept the unused drugs year-round, not only help reduce the amount of medication that may be misused and become part of the opioid crisis. Scientists say it's also good to keep the drugs out of wastewater treatment plants that may not be able to process them.

Boxes of unwanted prescription drugs are wrapped in plastic, before being shipped to an incinerator in Indiana.
Chuck Quirmbach
Boxes of unwanted prescription drugs are wrapped in plastic, before being shipped to an incinerator in Indiana.

Legal settlements with opioid manufacturers are starting to fund additional programs aimed at reducing opioid addiction and deaths, including room and board for residential treatment. State Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake says she'd also like to see more money go toward residential programs for more types of substance abusers.

"Because those funds come from the opioid settlements themselves, they can only pay for the treatment of people addicted to opioids. As we're seeing in this room, there are many other kinds of prescription medication that can become problematic for people. So, I think, if I were to take your question up a little, and think what do we need more broadly to combat substance use disorders generally, it would be for the legislature to join the governor's [Tony Evers] call, and pay for residential treatment for people who really need it," Timberlake says.

After months of delay, Republican lawmakers controlling the legislature's Joint Finance Committee, in September OK’d plans for spending some opioid settlement funds, but steered a portion of the money toward law enforcement.

It's a spending battle that may have more chapters after next week's elections for governor, attorney general and other state offices.

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