{"id":855496,"date":"2026-06-09T16:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/855496\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:49:19","slug":"78-pounds-of-expired-and-unused-medication-removed-in-record-albany-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/855496\/","title":{"rendered":"78 pounds of expired and unused medication removed in record Albany collection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 A recent medication take-back event in Albany resulted in a record-setting collection. Organizers say the effort helped remove approximately 78 pounds of unused or expired medications, along with 5 pounds of used and unused needles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Community organizations, healthcare providers, and law enforcement agencies recently partnered for the Community Strong Wellness and Resource Fair at the Albany Civic Center. During the event, residents were encouraged to dispose of unused, expired, and unwanted medications safely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Albany Police Chief Michael Persley said the event marked a milestone for the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis event resulted in the largest medication collection to date from a safe medication drop off event that was conducted jointly by the Albany Police Department and Albany Dougherty Special Investigative Unit,\u201d Persley said. \u201cThis was highlighting the community\u2019s continued support for safe medication disposal and overdose prevention effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials say the record-setting collection shows growing community awareness about the importance of proper medication disposal. They say events like these help keep potentially dangerous drugs off the streets while supporting overdose prevention efforts throughout Dougherty County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walb.com\/2026\/06\/08\/78-pounds-expired-unused-medication-removed-record-albany-collection\/mailto:walb-digitalproducers@gray.tv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.walb.com\/2026\/06\/08\/78-pounds-expired-unused-medication-removed-record-albany-collection\/mailto:walb-digitalproducers@gray.tv\" target=\"_blank\">Let us know.<\/a> Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WALBNews10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/walbnews10\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/walbnews10\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WALBNews10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WALBNews10\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a>. For more South Georgia news, download the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/walb-news-10\/id449395459\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/walb-news-10\/id449395459\" target=\"_blank\">WALB News app<\/a> and add WALB as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.walb.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.walb.com\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source<\/a> on Google. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 A recent medication take-back event in Albany resulted in a record-setting collection. Organizers say&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":855497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[34],"tags":[349276,349272,349264,349263,349278,340090,349283,349277,349267,10000,2669,349273,1230,349270,349281,210,349282,1060,349275,349262,349265,349266,349280,349279,177301,349274,349268,349271,67,132,349269,68,343704,349260,179470,349261],"class_list":["post-855496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-albany-civic-center-event","tag-albany-community-health","tag-albany-drug-disposal-event","tag-albany-medication-take-back-event","tag-albany-overdose-prevention-efforts","tag-albany-police-department","tag-albany-public-safety-initiative","tag-community-strong-wellness-fair","tag-dougherty-county-overdose-prevention","tag-drug","tag-drug-abuse","tag-drug-abuse-prevention","tag-drugs","tag-expired-medication-collection","tag-georgia-medication-take-back","tag-health","tag-keeping-drugs-off-the-streets","tag-medication","tag-medication-collection-record","tag-medication-take-back-event","tag-michael-persley","tag-michael-persley-retire","tag-needle-disposal-program","tag-overdose-prevention-efforts","tag-pills","tag-prescription-drug-safety","tag-prescription-drug-take-back","tag-safe-medication-drop-off","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-unused-medication-disposal","tag-us","tag-walb","tag-walb-james-irvin","tag-walb-news-10","tag-walb-pills"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}