South Windsor Police Department Installs Drug Collection Drop Box

The South Windsor police department recently installed a prescription medication drop box at its headquarters, according to Chief Matt Reed.

The drop box, which is expected to become available for public use sometime in May, came to the police department through the efforts of Sgt. Tom Field and funding from the East of the River Action for Substance Abuse Elimination (ERASE), Reed said in a telephone interview Friday.

Field spearheaded the initiative starting back in 2011, Reed said. The department also had to apply for state and federal approvals, the final one of which was given on March 21 2012.

Most recently, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection inspected the box’s installation on February 20.

When the box becomes available, residents will be able to dispose of their unwanted, unused or expired medications 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The box will augment the South Windsor police department’s successful drug collection days, the next one of which is scheduled to take place on April 27.

The box, which is about 2.5 feet high, is a one-way metal container bolted to the floor and has a camera pointed at it at all times, Reed said.

For people using the drop box, Reed said that that all medications should be properly secured in their containers for safety purposes.

Once the box is filled, an officer will take the medication to a facility to be incinerated, Reed said.

Town Councilor Dr. Saud Anwar, who only recently called for the town to have such a box installed at the police department, said that such disposal sites are necessary for the health, safety and welfare of the community.

“Medicines flushed down the toilet or the drain can end-up in the soil and/or water supply,” Anwar recently wrote in a Patch blog. “If pills make their way into the hands of children, there can be dire consequences. Some teenagers are using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes. It is all too common to hear that legitimate prescriptions for the drug Oxycodone have been taken from medicine cabinets and sold illicitly. Because of the environmental implications and potential for personal harm, an easily accessible system for the disposal of unwanted medicine is a prudent step for our community.”

Reed said that the police department had been working on procuring a medication disposal box long before Anwar called on the town to obtain one.

South Windsor joins a growing list of communities, including Simsbury and Farmington, that have such boxes.