The Clay County Sheriff's Department, as usual, has been a busy place and a lot of good things are happening. Two of our three new deputies have graduated the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and are completing their field training while our third new deputy is slated to graduate from the academy on Sept. 11. The deputies have been busy this summer -- they've been investigating and solving cases at a great pace while also attending all of the ongoing training required each year.

One of the really fun things we got to be involved with recently was the 2009 National Night Out.

For the second year in a row, we partnered with the Brazil City Police and Fire Departments to hold this community event. Although I saw most of the happenings from my perch in the dunking booth, it looked like everybody had a great time.

I would like to thank the YMCA of Clay County for offering up their facilities to host the event. Without them, it would have been very difficult to hold this event. I'd also like to thank the following local businesses for making donations to help fund the event and also to award door prizes to some of the attendees: Pappy's BBQ, Papa Johns Pizza, Subway, Pizza Hut, NAPA, Walmart, Hardees, the Riddell National Bank, the Terre Haute Savings Bank, and the Brazil Grill.

There were many new things at this year's National Night Out, but one of the most important, at least from a law enforcement and public safety standpoint, was the pill drop program.

Lynn Hostetler, of Lynn's Pharmacy, along with other local pharmacies partnered with us to offer a unique service for this area. The pill drop program offers Clay County residents a safe way to dispose of unwanted and unneeded medications in a safe and responsible way.

For years, methamphetamine has been the most prevalent drug of abuse in the county. Although methamphetamine is still a huge problem, prescription medication abuse is giving it a run for its money.

Prescription medication is often one of the first types of drugs that our youth abuse because it is so easily available. Most people see their medicine cabinet as a good place to keep their prescription medications organized. Unfortunately, a growing number of our youth see a medicine cabinet as a good place to find a free high. Rather than throwing away an old prescription, many people just stick it in the medicine cabinet or similar storage area and then forget that it's there.

Pain medications and muscle relaxers are frequently prescribed to treat an injury for a short period of time, many times a prescription of 30 or 60 tablets is prescribed but only a few are taken ¬¬-- the remaining medication can be very enticing to some of our young and not so young people who have started experimenting with drug abuse -- it can also be very deadly.

Clay County has suffered more deaths from the unauthorized and illegal use of prescription painkillers than it has from methamphetamine or any other drug. We've had cases involving school children who have stolen medicine from their parents and grandparents medicine cabinets and then took the medication to school. Often the children don't even know what the medication they stole is, much less what the safe dosage of the medication would be. The pills are then handed out or sold to their friends and acquaintances and inevitably one of the youths has a bad reaction -- it's just a matter of time until one of our local kids are seriously injured or killed as a result of taking medication meant for a serious condition.

We plan to continue partnering with our local pharmacies so everybody in the county has a safe place to dispose of unneeded medications. We also urge everybody to pay close attention to their prescription medications. If you or a family member is prescribed a narcotic medication, a muscle relaxer, a medication to treat ADD/ADHD or an antidepressant type medication -- such as Valium or Xanax -- we strongly urge you to keep your medication under "lock and key" as these types of medications are highly desirable to drug users.

It's a good idea to keep all medication in a safe location away from prying eyes. The medication that you're prescribed for a heart condition or high blood pressure may look like another type of commonly abused drug and a young person experimenting with drugs or an older drug abuser may steal your medication. The best-case scenario is that you're out some money and they get a little sick from taking it, the worst-case scenario is that your child or grandchild ends up dead from taking medication that can have deadly effects if taken unnecessarily or in too great of a dosage.

We're still working out the details of how to best make this program work on an ongoing basis and as soon as a long-term solution is found, we will notify the public. Until then, please do your part to keep all of your prescription medications out of the hands of those who don't need them.

Thank you, and be safe.

Michael W. Heaton

Sheriff of Clay County

611 E. Jackson St.

Brazil, IN 47834

812-446-2535 Ex: 5