Saturday: It's Time to Get Rid of Old Drugs

The is participating in Operation Take Back on Saturday, April 28. Residents can drop off unused or unwanted prescription drugs.

This initiative is in conjunction with the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Municipalities across the country and state are participating in the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Participants in the Morris Plains area can drop of the medications at and in the lobby of . Police are accepting prescription or non-prescription medicines, and it's completely anonymous—there are no questions asked.

"It's designed to give citizens a way to properly dispose of unwanted medications," said Chief Scott Thompson of the Morris Plains Police.

Thompson said that disposing the medications will help prevent the medicines from getting into the wrong hands, and also help the environment.

According to a statement from the DEA, the prescription drug abuse rates are increasing at an alarming rate, and studies show that many of the drugs are obtained from family and friends in a home medicine cabinet. 

The program's Web site lists a study done at the University of Michigan between 1997 and 2007 that found that treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased over 400 percent. It also found that between 2004 and 2008 hospital visits for wrongful use of painkillers increased 111 percent.

Disposing these drugs could help prevent dangerous situations where kids or someone with an addiction can turn to these drugs for abuse.

Thompson said that participating in the Take-Back could also help the environment because it prevents people from flushing the medications down the toilet, throwing them in the garbage, or putting them down the drain.

"They're pollutants, so it helps protect the ground water and the environment," he said.

This is the third time the borough is participating in this event. The program takes place twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. Thompson said that last October, Operation Take Back took place right in the middle of that month's unexpected snowstorm, but police still collected more than 90 pounds of drugs. The first time they participated they got about 60 pounds.

According to the DEA Web site, last October more than 377,000 pounds of medications were disposed nationally from over 5,000 take-back sites across the country. According to the Operation Take Back New Jersey site, over 14,000 of those pounds were from New Jersey.

For more information visit operationtakebacknj.com or justice.gov/dea.