Berrien County Health Department Launches Campaign Against Medication Abuse

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The Berrien County Health Department is reminding everyone about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. Berrien County Health Department prevention supervisor Lisa Peeples-Hurst tells WSJM News the most common kind of drug abuse involves substances that were obtained legally.

“Because prescription drugs are easy to get,” Peeples Hurst said. “There may be several prescriptions in a particular household, and therefore, they’re accessible, particularly for children and teenagers.”

Peeples Hurst says some patients think their medication is safe just because it’s legal.

“A lot of the cases that we see, people were generally prescribed pain relieving medication for maybe a broken arm or some type of condition. So, in some of our cases, it was an honest start with their own prescription drug medication.”

And in other cases, those who the medications were not intended for get their hands on them. Peeples Hurst says you can find safe drug takeback boxes at locations throughout Berrien County. Leaving unneeded medications in the boxes is a safe and anonymous way to keep those drugs out of the wrong hands. You can find a list of them here.