Redding Police Will Take Your Unused Drugs

If you’ve got unused and unnecessary pharmaceutical drugs laying around the house or stashed in the medicine cabinet, you’re now able to drop them off at the 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Chief Douglas Fuchs said the department recently installed a prescription medication drug collection box, which allows people to drop off their unwanted drugs any time they’d like rather than on a specific day . Fuchs said people can start bringing in these drugs next week.

“The real mission behind this is to get those medications out from medicine cabinets so they’re not abused intentionally or unintentionally by anyone, especially our youth,” Fuchs said.

Fuchs said in order for the department to be able to have the box, it had to receive authorization from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Consumer Protection, independent of each other.

“We applied for both and have received [the approval of] both,” he said.

The price of the box — $900 — was split between the department and the Housatonic Valley Council Against Substance Abuse, Fuchs said.

“It’s good for the environment as a byproduct, no questions asked,” he said.