On Saturday afternoon, two elderly women dropped of a small brown paper bag full of old pills to Lawrence County Sheriff Deputy Derek Newman.

Newman collected the bag and gave the women a window decal to display on their home that read “no prescription drugs on premises.”

Dan Palmer, coordinator of the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District, gave the car-counter a click. Those women had been in the 30th vehicle to pass through the drug take back at the Ironton Hills Shopping Center.

A moment later, another set of women drove up and handed Newman a large plastic bag of prescription pills — cilosrazol, metoprolol, ranitidine and other difficult-to-pronounce names.

By about noon, 30 pounds of pills had been collected, not including the bucket full of blister packs that hadn’t been opened. There were also several buckets of discarded needles.

“You name it, we’ve collected just about every bit of it,” Palmer said.

Palmer said cars began lining up even before the drop off began at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The drop off, sponsored by the LSSWMD and the sheriff’s office, was a free opportunity for Lawrence County residents to safely get rid of their outdated or unwanted pills.

“We have to quit polluting our waterways,” Palmer said. “And that’s why we work with the sheriff’s office to afford people the right way to dispose of medications.”

The collection team kept a tally of the types of pills being disposed of. Some ranged from narcotics like oxycodone and hydrocodone to mood-stabilizers like lithium and even over the counter medications like allergy pills, multivitamins, fish oil and even Tums. The oldest date on any package was from 1980, Palmer said.

At the end of the four-hour event, the team had collected 50 pounds of pills and 25 pounds of needles from 45 vehicles.

Palmer said the pills would be taken by the sheriff’s office to OSCO Industries in Portsmouth for incineration, which is approved by the EPA. Our Lady of Bellefonte Urgent Care at Ironton Hills took the needles for disposal.

The LSSWMD also had the same event in Scioto County Friday, which netted 46 pounds of pills and 21 pounds of needles.