Wallingford Police Hosting Prescription Drug Disposal Event On Oct. 26

A press release from the Wallingford Police Department:

On Saturday, Oct.  26, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Wallingford Police Department is providing a Drug Take Back Program, located at the Wallingford Police Department’s rear parking lot.  The program provides for the removal of harmful medication that enters our children’s surroundings, and safely disposes of drugs that otherwise may find their way into the public drinking water supply.

Wallingford Police Officers will remain at the site the entire time and Drug Control Agents will be collecting the controlled substances from the site, securely transporting and destroying the material according to abandoned property/evidence policies.

People who arrive to turn in their medications will enter at the police department’s front entrance, drive to the rear parking lot where they will meet with a police officer to turn over their medication.  No one will be allowed out of their vehicles while they are turning over their medications.

Expired or unwanted prescription medication along with over the counter medicines will be collected at the site.  All medications must be in original containers, name crossed out.  Illegal drugs or paraphernalia will not be collected with the prescription medications.  If anyone should happen to bring such items police officers on site will confiscate them.

The need for the event is the emergence of data that suggest prescription drugs containing controlled substances are being misused/abused leading to cases of accidental poisoning, overdose and addiction in the United States.  A factor contributing to their increased usage is their availability and accessibility within the home.  In many cases medicines containing controlled substances remain in the home long after therapy has been completed, thus making these drugs easily accessible to others who misuse and abuse them.

Another issue is the contaminations of drinking water supplies with pharmaceuticals.  Reports of trace amounts of prescription medicines being found in drinking water supplies across the country have spurred public interest in how medications are being disposed.  Most are under the impression that the best and safest way to dispose of unwanted or expired medications is to flush or pour them down the drain.  In light of recent discoveries of common medications such as ibuprofen, naxproxen, cabamazepine and sulfamethoxazole in public water sources, it’s clear that people need to be given another option on how to dispose of their medications.

The Wallingford Police Department wants to educate the community about these issues and how to approach the problem at hand by providing the community with a safe and free means of properly disposing of their household medications.  Programs such as this help to keep drugs out of the water supply and out of the hands of adolescents and teens who may choose to abuse them.