After having to skip the 2020 drug take back events due to the pandemic, local residents are eager to get rid of their old, unused and expired medications.

They lined up at the Peggy M. Seegars Senior Center for Wednesday’s Operation Medicine Drop in Goldsboro.

Shelly Willis, Safe Kids Coordinator for the Partnership for Children of Wayne County, says folks were lined up to drop off their meds before the event even got underway Wednesday morning.

Willis says there seemed to be a pent-up demand for the drug drop off event following last year’s cancellations.

In some cases, residents were dropping off meds that were 5-to-10 years old.

Volunteers from Wayne Community College, Wayne UNC Health Care and Seymour Johnson assisted with this year’s drug drop-off event.

Dr. Marcie Quinn, a pharmacist and Director of the Pharmacy Tech Program at WCC, says Operation Medicine Drop provided real world experience for her students as they learned to identify controlled and non-controlled drugs.

Goldsboro Police Department and Safe Kids Wayne County partner for Operation Medicine Drop.

Staff and volunteers sort through dropped off medications during the 2021 Operation Medicine Drop