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SBI destroys 7 tons of unwanted prescription drugs

The latest statewide Operation Medicine Drop campaign resulted in the incineration on Wednesday of over seven tons of prescription pills. George Olsen has more.

Citizens were encouraged to dispose of unwanted and expired medications at local law enforcement offices. Those offices then took the collected medicines to the eight field offices of the State Bureau of Investigation. The field offices in turn took the collected medications… totaling approximately 7.7 million dosage units weighing 15,442 pounds… to the SBI’s Diversion and Environmental Crime Unit in Raleigh and then finally to an EPA-approved incinerator in Alamance County to be destroyed. SBI director Bob Schurmeier says getting unwanted medications out of residences keeps them out of reach of children and removes temptation from adults to use the medication and start down the path to addiction. I’m George Olsen.

George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.