The Annual Cortland County Drug Takeback Event is Coming Up

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X 1 0 1. Always classic Jack here in the studio. And joining me in the studio is Cortland County Sheriff Mark Helms. Sheriff Helms, it’s great to see you,

Mark Helms: Jack. You too. I appreciate you having me.

Jack Eves: Of course. You know. And, um, big event is also coming up again later this month on September 27th. It’s the drug take back event.

You wanna give us some details on that?

Mark Helms: It is, we’re, we’re looking to, I like to make these an annual thing for here on out. I mean, it kind of has been for many years. Uh, but we do one in the, the spring. It’s always gonna be the last Saturday in the month of April. Okay. And then we have the last Saturday in the month of September.

So our next one is coming right up September 27th. Um, and we’re excited about it. Uh, looking forward to it.

Jack Eves: Looking forward to it. And you know what’s great with this Drug Takeback event is it’s all over Corland County at three locations, the Cortlandville Fire Station, Cincinnatus Fire Station, and on the Marathon, village Green, that’s right in front of the high school, all [00:01:00] starting at 9:00 AM and then, uh, Cincinnatus and Marathons until 11 in the morning.

And it’s a great and safe way to dispose of any expired or unused medication. Right.

Mark Helms: It is perfect for that. It’s nice and easy. It’s, it’s really. I don’t think we can make it much easier. You drive up with your car, you hand it out to us, you don’t even have to get out.

Jack Eves: Oh, that’s great. And

Mark Helms: uh. We take it from there.

I have lots of help. Luckily, my, uh, my area fire department’s a shout out to Cortland v Marathon and Cincinnati. Uh, they’ve been great and, uh, partnering with me for, uh, the Takebacks and, uh, we do all the heavy lifting, so to speak, and, uh, people bring the medications to us. They, all they gotta do is hand it out to us.

Jack Eves: Easy handout again, but quick reminder for those, it’s no sharps or liquids though, right? Correct. I’m glad you brought that up. Thank you. Yeah, and you know, it’s a great way to safely dispose of that too, just in case you know of any type of, uh, misuse of medication. I. You know, if it’s someone young or even [00:02:00] maybe like it’s in an area and someone might grab it and use it, you know, that can be a huge health risk.

So having it safely disposed is always good. And I believe they incinerate ’em, right?

Mark Helms: We do. We take it that day. Normally, depending on, you know. The facility that we use is available, and it almost always is that day that we take them and, and, uh, destroy ’em instantly. So it’s not something that people have to worry about as far as, uh, you can keep ’em in the, the container they come in, you can put ’em in a sandwich bag, you can do, um, you know, anything that, that you’re comfortable handing them to us in.

Okay. Uh, it’s, where I’m going with that is it’s not something we, we look at names or. Or anything like that. You’re not, you’re seeing what’re giving you No, they’re going right into a bag and they go right from there, right to an incinerator. So it’s, it’s not something where people have to worry about, uh, it’s very confidential.

It’s not anything that, uh, we’re keeping records of who brought them or anything like that. It’s, uh, it really is as simple as you drop ’em off and we destroy ’em.

Jack Eves: That, that’s a good thing to [00:03:00] note too. Again, it’s the Cortland County Drug Takeback that’s happening on Saturday, September 27th at three locations, starting at nine in the morning.

The Cortlandville Fire Station. The Cincinnati is Fire Station and the Marathon Village Green. We have those exact addresses on our website if you need to look it up. Sheriff Helms, it’s always great speaking with you. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Mark Helms: No, just thanks for having me and, uh, hope that, uh. I try and make every one of these.

I don’t think I’ve missed one yet, and uh, I look forward to seeing everybody out there on Saturday the 27th.

Jack Eves: Oh yeah. It’s a great event. The sheriff’s office, as well as all these other first responders conduct, it’s great for our community. Sheriff Helms, thank you so much for coming in.

Mark Helms: I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Jack Eves: Frex 1 0 1, I’m Jack Eves.