Kendall Co. Sheriff Launches New Effort To Fight Opioid Crisis

OSWEGO, IL — The Kendall County Sheriff's Office and the county's Health Department are partnering on a new initiative to get opioids off the street. Both agencies are partnering to offer the public new kits that safely destroy unwanted or expired prescriptions.

Starting this week, the sheriff's office will have available to residents what's known as the Deterra Drug Deactivation System Kit. The kit allows for the safe and environmentally friendly disposal of drugs in pill, liquid or patch form. Kits can be picked up for free at the Sheriff's office at 1102 Cornell Ln. in Yorkville.

“Safely disposing of unused medication is critical to protecting our children, community and our environment," Sheriff Dwight Baird said in a statement. " This will be another tool that the Sheriff’s Office will have to combat the opioid crisis and further assist our residents and their families in mitigating the direct and indirect effects of opioid abuse.”

The sheriff's office will continue to offer its drug collection unit, where unwanted or expired drugs can be dropped off for proper disposal.

The kits are courtesy of the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative of Illinois, a group of 20 health care, law enforcement and other community organizations allied to fight drug abuse. One of the group's first efforts in this fight was to disperse 50,000 drug disposal kits to various law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

Illinois is not immune from the opioid crisis that has gripped the country and become the worst drug epidemic in American history. Nearly 2 billion opioid pills were distributed in Illinois between 2006-2012, helping to flood communities with the dangerous drug.

One of the ways drugs get abused is through exposure to opioids in the home, through prescription drugs, said Dr. Amaal Tokars, public health officer for Kendall County.

"We are grateful for the 24/7 safe medication drop box at the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office and now also deeply appreciative that the Sheriff and his staff have partnered with us once again by sharing their safe medication disposal supplies," Tokars said.