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RIPLEY -- The Jackson County Sheriff's Department is putting its drug incinerator to good use as it collects unused prescription drugs around the year and disposes of them properly.
In 2013, Amy Haskins from the Jackson County Health Department secured a grant to purchase a drug incinerator for the county which, at the time, was the first in the state.
Recently, members of law enforcement used the equipment to dispose of the drugs. That happens a few times a year.
According to Sheriff Tony Boggs, this effort was through the Anti-Drug Coalition.
Some of the funds for the incinerator came from the drug money seized in the county.
Other counties in the region followed suit by purchasing an incinerator and Boggs said they used the Jackson County machine as a model for how they designed theirs.
"There was a purchase of 10 of them that went throughout the regions in the state a couple years ago. They used ours as a model, they basically got the same kind of thing and had them built," he said.
Boggs said over the past years they encouraged community members to clean out their medicine cabinets of all unused medications to reduce the risk of someone stealing or abusing them.
Drop boxes are available at the Ripley and Ravenswood Police Stations and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
They lock the drugs away until they have enough to use the incinerator, Boggs said.
"It's not uncommon for us to get a backload of pills," he said. "If the person no longer needs them, they need to get them out of there. They will be stolen and abused if you're not careful."
Community members are diligent about using the drop off locations to dispose of their unused medications, Boggs said.
"People have been pretty good about removing those now. They end up here in our drop boxes so we're able to dispose of them," he said.
Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.