Give your unwanted drugs to Mundelein police

Seeking to curb prescription drug abuse in town, Mundelein police have added a drug disposal box to their station’s main lobby.

The green, metal box, which resembles a sidewalk mailbox, is part of the Save A Star drug disposal program. Only a few other police stations and public buildings in Lake County have such boxes, including the Highland Park police station and the Lake County Health Department offices, officials said.

Mundelein Deputy Police Chief Eric Guenther is particularly concerned about children who improperly use prescription medicine, especially when combined with alcohol.

“What we want is to (create) an outlet to get rid of these things,” he said.

The boxes bear labels that describe what types of drugs can be dropped off and which can’t.

Acceptable drugs include prescription medications, all over-the-counter medicines, controlled substances, pet medications, liquid medication in leakproof containers and vitamins.

Items that shouldn’t be left in the boxes include needles, thermometers, IV bags, bloody waste and hydrogen peroxide.

In Mundelein, a police department detective will routinely empty the box and collect the materials in the department’s evidence vault, Guenther said.

Eventually the drugs will be boxed, weighed and then taken to an incinerator in Indiana and destroyed.

“That’s the safest way,” Guenther said. “This plant is set up to handle this type of material.”

The dropbox can be accessed by the public any time of the day or night. It’s in the lobby on the Route 45 side of the building.

Anyone can drop unwanted drugs into the box, police said.

Nearly 700,000 emergency room visits a year are attributed to prescription drug overdoses, according Mundelein police.

Prescription drugs also create an environmental risk. In 2008, Chicago officials found trace amounts of drugs in Lake Michigan drinking water, according to the Save A Star website.