Residents Can Get Rid of Old Meds with Police Help

The Wyckoff police want to help residents clean out their medicine cabinets.

The local force will be participating alongside municipalities throughout the state in Operation Take Back New Jersey, an effort to get residents to safely dispose of their unwanted, unused and expired medications.

Detective Michael Musto will be at headquarters at Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 25 to receive old prescriptions for eventual destruction. And don't worry—there will be no questions asked.

"We're not matching up names to prescriptions or anything," Musto said. "We just want to get these things off the street."

The detective said police everywhere are increasingly seeing cases of minors pilfering prescription medications from parents' medicine cabinets, sometimes to devastating effect. It isn't difficult for a teen with little knowledge of what he/she is taking to accidentally overdose, Musto said, and the program will help "take away the temptation" to raid medicine cabinets.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, prescription abuse has been increasing rapidly. The DEA cites a study from the University of Michigan that found that hospital admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent from 1997 to 2007, while emergency visits involving the non-medical use of painkillers increased 111 percent from 2004 to 2008.

However, while Operation Take Back New Jersey largely has youths in mind, the program is "really for everyone." Musto said seniors who rely on multiple medications often could get confused on what they're taking or simply hang on to expired and potentially dangerous meds. Otherwise, adults without such concerns may simply throw medications away, which Musto and police Chief Benjamin Fox noted contributes to the pollution of waterways and landfills.

On Sept. 25, anyone can simply walk up to police headquarters and drop off any medications. Musto said the submissions will be "controlled and secured" in the police's evidence room before being transported by police to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office for destruction.

The effort was first launched by the DEA in 2009, and the federal department's New Jersey division is leading the charge again, alongside partners who include the state police, Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, the National Public Safety Alliance and others. Municipalities throughout New Jersey will participate on Sept. 25.

The DEA said 9,000 pounds of old medications were collected last year from 400 New Jersey law enforcement agencies, and it estimates that the collected bounty would have had a street value of $35 million.

Although it will be Wyckoff's first time participating in the program, Musto said the department may be able to conduct such collections twice a year.

"I hope we get a good response," the detective said.