The Ultimate Prescription Drug Disposal Toolbox

An Interview with Eric Bohm of P2D2

The mission of the Waynedale Green Alliance is to bring the new 'green' vocabulary to Waynedale and everywhere! The objective is to inject these terms into the vernacular of our culture and in so doing bring imagination, innovation and development in important areas such as energy conservation, biodiversity, energy poverty, global warming, and green business practices.

We have created several methods of accomplishing this goal. One of them is to find pioneers in the field -those who have stepped up and put in place programs that enable citizens, young and old, actively engaged, or on the precipice of change to make a difference on Planet Earth.

Eric Bohm is a teacher at Normal, Illinois. I interviewed Eric to find out how he and the students of Pontiac High School put together the P2D2 program. A prescription drug program that engaged not only the students, but the whole community of Normal.

I was able to ask a variety of questions about the P2D2 program and get an idea of what the students did, how the program came about ,and how the community came together to accomplish this important goal.

Normal, Illinois had a population in a 2005 census of 50, 519- and was named in Forbes.com in February, 2008, #20 on its list of the 25 smartest communities in the United States.

After reading the following discussion with Eric Bohm, we might all see why Normal made that ranking.

ABS) Tell us about the inspiration behind the Pontiac Prescription Drug Program.

EB) The idea for the project came when Paul Ritter's wife, Jodee, asked what she should do with some unused pharmaceuticals in their medicine cabinet. Not sure what the correct method of disposal was, Paul posed the question to his Ecology students and they went right to work. The students utilized information from the Internet, and enlisted the help of local officials from Illinois American Water and Pontiac.