In almost two months, 91 pounds of unwanted prescription medications were collected from the drug box in the lobby of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.

Installed Nov. 9, the prescription drug box came from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at the request of Sheriff Jeff Lawless to keep old medications off the streets and out of the waterways.

This was the first count of medications from the box since it was installed.

“This proves to me that this program works,” Lawless said. “To have collected this volume of medications in two short months is amazing to me. As a result of this program, our homes, our streets and our waterways are safer today.”

The drug box is available to citizens 24 hours a day and no interaction with a law enforcement officer is needed. If a person has drugs they want to dispose of, they simply have to walk into the lobby and dispose of the drugs into the secure box.

Several safety precautions should be observed when using the take back box:

• Do not deposit needles or sharp objects.

• Liquids should be tightly capped and placed in a zip lock bag.

• If a label can be removed, do so. If not, black out the name with a marker.

All medications and containers that the sheriff’s office receives will be incinerated.