The Middletown Health Department recently installed a medication drop-off container at the police station at 222 Main St.

MIDDLETOWN — A permanent medication disposal box has been installed downtown, where people can turn in their unused and expired drugs that could pose a safety hazard.

The health department recently installed the receptacle at the police station at 222 Main St., Health Director Kevin Elak said.

“It’s another way of making sure that people aren’t storing medications that could possibly get into the wrong hands,” he explained, including narcotics, which can be addictive.

“You don’t want mom or dad to have a prescription in the medicine cabinet and the kids going in there, taking them, even accidentally,” the director said.

Officials will collect the items and safely dispose of them in an incinerator.

The health office is spearheading the newly formed Greater Middletown Opioid Task Force, which has set a goal of unifying agencies and individuals working to end the opioid crisis. It is comprised of representatives from Middletown, Middlefield, Cromwell, Portland, Durham, East Haddam and beyond, all fighting the opioid crisis on various fronts through prevention, treatment and recovery.

Such prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs should not disposed of in the water supply, Elak explained, since they contaminate bodies of water.

In municipalities where residences are connected to wastewater treatment plants, these can pass through the treatment system and enter rivers and lakes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They may flow downstream into community drinking water supplies, the agency added.

Water treatment plants are generally not equipped to routinely remove medicines, the EPA said. In homes that use septic tanks, prescription and over-the-counter drugs flushed down the toilet can leach into the ground and seep into groundwater.

The health office at City Hall also provides free disposal bags, which people can keep at home as a place to collect their unused medications. When they are mixed with water, the combination turns into a solid that can be placed in the trash without fear of contamination, Elak explained.

“It renders them no longer usable,” he added.

Cassandra Day is an award-winning multimedia journalist and resident of the North End of Middletown who has been reporting nearly every facet of the city for over two decades.