Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and RX Safe Humboldt Launch New Anti-Opioid Campaign

Humboldt County Sheriff Billy Honsal and RX Safe Humboldt Partners.

Humboldt County Sheriff Billy Honsal and RX Safe Humboldt Partners. [All images provided by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office]

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department:

On July 6, 2018, the Sheriff’s Office and RX Safe Humboldt launched a new anti-opioid campaign titled “Heroin in your Home: The Danger Within Your Cabinet”. This campaign comes after Humboldt County stood up to opioid manufacturers, signing on to a lawsuit holding drug manufacturers accountable for the national opioid addiction epidemic. The Sheriff’s Office recently took a stand for Humboldt County children, signing a letter created by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California urging Congress to take action to address addiction and prioritize funding for infants and children affected by opioids.

New medication disposal bin.

New medication disposal bin.

As part of this new campaign, the Sheriff’s Office has installed a medication disposal bin in the lobby of the Humboldt County Courthouse’s Fourth Street entrance. The location of this bin allows members of the public to drop off unused, unwanted or expired medications while taking care of other errands at the courthouse. The medication bin will be accessible to the community during business hours of the Humboldt County Courthouse, Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

The purchase of this bin was generously funded by RX Safe Humboldt and was facilitated by the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Public Health Division. DHHS has also committed to assist the Sheriff’s Office in properly destroying all medications deposited into the bin.

The Sheriff’s Office believes a part of the solution to the growing opioid epidemic is to curb addiction at its source. Eighty percent of heroin users first began their addiction with prescription drugs.

Poster about prescription medicine

“Curb addiction at the source,” says the Rx Safe Humboldt poster. “Discard unused, expired or unwanted prescriptions properly.”

Many of those drugs were obtained from a relative or friend. Prescription opioids can be just as addictive as heroin, possessing similar chemical qualities as the street drug. Unused, unwanted or expired medications sitting in your home are a silent danger, waiting to fall into the wrong hands. The community can help protect the next generation by properly disposing of these medications, decreasing the chance for the prescriptions to be abused.

Join the Sheriff’s Office and RX Safe Humboldt in protecting the next generation. For more information regarding prescription opioid abuse in Humboldt County, medication bin locations and resources to help overcome an addiction, visit rxsafehumboldt.org.

bin locations

Disposal bins are located at several places throughout Humboldt County. Though none are located in Southern Humboldt.

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16 Comments
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fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
5 years ago

All while everyone else is begging for weed-tourism.

“Come to Humboldt and get high…but not too high”

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
5 years ago

“Come to Humboldt and get high…but not too high”

Dan Fuller
Guest
Dan Fuller
5 years ago

There is a HUGE difference between Cannabis use & Opioid addiction!!!

J Dubbs
Guest
J Dubbs
5 years ago

If it doesn’t involve eggs in a frying pan and something or other about your brain being on them, it probably won’t work.

gunther
Guest
gunther
5 years ago

Any opioids will be divided up with the courthouse staff.

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
5 years ago

Exactly!

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

Although prescription drugs may be a problem, there have been stories in the press about boxes of hundreds of thousands of opioid pills sent in the mail from China illegally. Somehow a deposit box in the sheriff’s office seems at best of very limited use in reducing addiction when pills can just be ordered on the internet. Good for the environment though.

The Entropic Empath
Guest
The Entropic Empath
5 years ago

In a county buried in Weed, Meth, and Heroin, [edit] are worried about “unused prescription drugs?” [edit]

Then get your nose out of your neighbors’ medicine chest, and find something else to do. [edit].

The “Opioid Epidemic” is a Medical issue, between physicians and their patients. Responsible prescribing and consumption is private. It makes good copy, but it’s a non-starter.

Wealthy businessmen are scheming to sell you “wellness” and “relief” from the terrible “Opiod Epidemic”… Happening soon in YOUR area!! Someone is making a profit off those “prescription drug deposit cans…”

Clean out your own house, and never mind everyone else!

I predict this bin will be empty of Opioids…

Anti troll league
Guest
Anti troll league
5 years ago

I doubt whether Kym will find such cheap pot shots as worthy of remaining in the comment site.

The Entropic Empath
Guest
The Entropic Empath
5 years ago

Also, what about the “overeating epidemic”?

Perhaps you should deposit “unused food items” in a bin to be destroyed…

If mommy-ism is to be news, and the fashion is to try to influence others to behave in certain ways, why don’t we take on some important issues? Here are a few:

1) Deposit your V-8 engines here, since V-8 engines burn too much gas and cause global warming and massive firestorms in Northern California!

2) Deposit your unused firearms, since firearms cause death from flying bullets!

3) Deposit your unused pounds of bud, since bud causes Heroin Addiction and sexual deviancy and up-skirting…

4) Deposit your unused Harley-Davidsons, since Harleys cause old men to grow gray beards and travel in large packs, choking highways and causing beer shortages.

Sound ridiculous?

No more ridiculous than certain persons attempting to insert themselves in between you and your physician in a misguided attempt to separate patients from medication.

I would like to see someone try to separate pot-as-medicine types from their favorite “medication”…

I predict that human beings will do exactly as they please, and that no amount of mommying will affect the “opioid epidemic”…

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
5 years ago

Dude,they totally ask for that stuff,too.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

The traditional term is paternalism, not mommy-ism.

Taurusballzhoff
Guest
Taurusballzhoff
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

I think the world is now controlled by women. And they want you to “deposit those unused testicles” somewhere, too…

Mommy-ism is the new approach of government, and certain churches and law enforcement agencies, since females are in charge…

anon forrest
Guest
anon forrest
5 years ago

Just HOW are the opioids destroyed? Ending up in our ocean? Air? Land fill?

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  anon forrest

That would be interesting to know. I just assumed that the “authorities” would take care of it responsibly but that is a whale of an assumption.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

To counter such a black view of the world- The sun shines even in Humboldt County. The birds fly earning their own livelihoods (it helps to think of pigeons as rock doves), the sky is always beautiful and, until you the moment you die, there are choices you can make for your own benefit.

It is not Pollyanna-ish to look for the good. Much is not perfect. But to find good, you have to look for it and learn what good looks like. Be grateful for it when you find it.

BTW there are people looking for all those things already but there is a whole world outside of bad addictions that needs attention too.