Spring Cleaning For Your Medicine Cabinet

Editor's note: The following is a press released issued by the Aberdeen Township Police Department.

The Aberdeen Township Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its sixth opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.

Bring your medications for disposal to the Aberdeen Township Municipal Building at 1 Aberdeen Square off of Church Street between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27. The service is free and anonymous with no questions asked.

Last September, 244 tons of prescription drugs were turned in at over 5,200 sites operatedby the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners across the country. In its five previous 'Take Back' events, DEA and its partners took in over 2 million pounds—over a thousand tons—of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdosesdue to these drugs.

Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Four days after the first event, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Actof 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize longterm care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances. DEA is drafting regulations to implement the Act.

Until new regulations are in place, local lawenforcement agencies like the Aberdeen Police Department and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.

For more information contact Detective Sgt. Michael O’Dwyer at 732-583-4200 ext. 202 or go to www.dea.gov.