Everyday, 44 people in the United States die from overdose of prescription painkillers. Prescription medicines are the drug of choice among 12 and 13 year olds, according to the packet handed out at the Black Diamond City Council meeting on April 7.

The city of Black Diamond authorized the mayor to come to an agreement with ReturnMeds, a medicine return program, during the City Council meeting.

The ReturnMeds program installs kiosks where people can drop off their unused medicine to be picked up and disposed of safely. In 2013, the King County Board of Health created the ReturnMeds program, for King County residents. In 2015 King County approved the ReturnMeds program as the standard plan for the county. The ReturnMeds program is scheduled to be implemented in June.

After some research and focus groups, King County saw that drop boxes were the preferred method of medicine recycling by the public. The county committed to purchase 400 drop boxes at public expense, one of them being at the Black Diamond Police Department. Black Diamond determined a drop box at the police department was the preferred method of medicine recycling, instead of collection events, mail-back services or a drop-box at any other location.

The ReturnMeds program will be covered under the existing budget for the city of Black Diamond. There is no cost to the city other than staff time which is already budgeted and minimal. The drop-box option is also the cheapest option for recycling medicine.

Without proper disposal of medicine, it is easily accessible to others and can cause accidental poisoning, among other dangers. When medicine is disposed of down a drain, it goes into the water system, which has caused Puget Sound salmon to have high levels of drugs in their tissue caused by tainted wastewater.

By having a safe place to dispose medicine, Black Diamond hopes to decrease the dangers of unused medicine in the city.