Dec 10, 2019 (WNDU) - Beacon Health System is partnering with the 525 Foundation to place Drop 2 Stop boxes for unwanted prescriptions and over-the-counter medications at three hospitals in Michiana.
The new co-branded drop boxes were unveiled Tuesday at Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Elkhart General Hospital and Community Hospital of Bremen.
Beacon is the first health system in the nation to collaborate with the 525 Foundation, which was established by Becky and Mike Savage after their teenage sons, Nick and Jack, died in 2015 from an accidental overdose caused by a combination of alcohol and oxycodone.
Becky speaks across the country about the dangers of misusing opioid prescription drugs to educate kids and help other families avoid a similar tragedy.
"The Drop 2 Stop program started, obviously, because of our tragedy," Becky said. "We realized that there were surplus medications, and we started thinking, you know, how did kids get their hands on something like this? So, we really wanted to get involved in our community and try to decrease the surplus amount of prescription medications floating around out there."
While these are new collection sites for Bremen and Elkhart, Memorial Hospital started collecting unwanted medicine in 2016.
About 2,300 pounds of medication have been collected and destroyed since that time.
Shot & Edited by Derald Gray.
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