Drug take-back events this month net 423 pounds of medications

The Riverhead Community Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Youth and its community partners collected 423 pounds of unused, unwanted and expired medication during three different take-back events between Oct. 15 and Oct. 22.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, in conjunction with the DEA National Take-Back Initiative, 307 pounds of medication were collected at Peconic Bay Medical Center in partnership with PBMC Northwell Health, Riverhead Police Department, N.Y. National Guard Counterdrug Task Force and the Riverhead Youth Coalition. An additional 25 pounds were collected the same day at the Flanders take-back event in partnership with Southampton Police Department, Southampton Councilwoman Julie Lofstad, and the Southampton Youth Bureau. The previous week on Saturday, Oct. 15, in conjunction with the Riverhead Town’s STOP (Stop Throwing Out Pollutants) Day, 91 pounds were collected at the highway department. Many of the medications collected were controlled substances.

“The safe disposal of unwanted and expired medication is one of the coalition’s critical focal points in its multi-faceted approach to preventing prescription drug addiction and overdose, in addition to heroin abuse,” CAP Community Prevention Specialist Kelly Miloski said. “We will continue to work with our local police departments and our other partners to raise awareness about our community’s medication drop box and the importance of safely disposing of your medication.”

To date, over 2,400 pounds of medication have been collected through the combination of the take-back events and the permanent drop box, which was installed in the lobby of the Riverhead Police Department in August 2014. It is available to residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (The police department is located at 210 Howell Avenue in Riverhead.)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, especially among teens. The CDC reports that one in five teens say they have taken prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription and each day more than 2,000 teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time. The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that nearly half of young people who inject heroin reported abusing prescription painkillers before starting to use heroin. Some individuals said they began using heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription drugs. In addition, more people die from prescription drug overdoses than from all illegal drugs combined. In fact, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., outnumbering highway traffic fatalities.