Left, Stevens Point Police Sgt. Dan Wheeler stands over six 33- gallon bins of prescription and OTC drugs collected by the department over the past several weeks. (City-Times photo)

By Brandi Makuski

Officials from the Stevens Point Police Department say they’ve collected hundreds of pounds in prescription and over-the-counter medications in recent months- drugs which are already scheduled for destruction by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The department’s Prescription Drug Take Back program began about 7 years ago, according to Chief Kevin Ruder, as part of a national movement to remove prescription drug contamination from local water sources, but also as a means to prevent it from being sold on the street. The drugs can be dropped off anonymously in a converted mailbox which stands in the lobby of the department, and Ruder said it needs to be emptied weekly.

To give the depth of the bin a greater context, Sgt. Dan Wheeler digs through one container of collected prescription drugs.

“I never would have dreamed all the pharmaceuticals that would have come into that box,” Ruder said.

“Initially, of course, we just wanted to keep it out of the groundwater,” Ruder said. “People flush it down the toilet and down the drain, and it gets not only in the ground water but it gets into the sewer system, which goes to the treatment plant and some of those things can kill the enzymes used to treat the sewage. But it also gets into the streams- fish can lose fertility from that.”

SPPD Sgt. Dan Wheeler, who catalogues property and evidence for the department, said the department collects enough medication to fill two 33- gallon bins each week.

“And it’s not just pills- it’s anything you can imagine being put into a medicine cabinet,” Wheeler said, who’s served with the department for over 30 years. “We’ll find Band-Aids, makeup, needles, just about anything. Last week we found two tubes of toothpaste.”

Wheeler said he often finds vitamins, minerals, antacids and other supplements in the collection bins, which he said could all tossed harmlessly in one’s garden.

“You don’t realize how much is there when you see this thing get emptied out,” said Assistant Chief Tom Zenner. ”I mean, we do this every week.”

Zenner, who previously worked in the city’s narcotics unit, said the street value of some medications has risen sharply, which is one reason heroin has begun to take hold in parts of Central Wisconsin.

“The cost of oxycodone (pills), for example, which is basically prescription heroin, went up,” Zenner said. “Unfortunately, heroin is cheaper.”

Assistant Chief Tom Zenner holds one of dozens of bags filled with collected prescription drugs.

With a street value of roughly one dollar per milligram, Chief Ruder estimated the department has collected nearly $30 million in medications from the past few months alone. The department sends nonprescription medications to the Material Recovery Facility in Plover for proper disposal, while the rest goes into the custody of the DEA for incineration. Details behind when and how the drugs are released to federal custody are not made public for security reasons.

“We usually have- easily- five boxes of packed drugs,” Wheeler said. “And there are 67 pounds of pill to a box once it’s packed. So, do the math.”

Wheeler added he suspects the Take Back Program is utilized largely by residents who clean out medicine cabinets after elderly parents pass away.

“You come across pill bottles from pharmacies that haven’t existed for 20, 30 years,” he said. ”But, If you never thought Americans were being over-prescribed medication, you should see when we empty that out. You just sit there and go, ‘wow’.”