Crime & Safety

Police Collect 325 Pounds of Medication in Pill Take Back Day

Initiative prevents prescription medication abuse and keeps drugs from polluting environment.

County residents turned in more than 300 pounds of prescription drugs as a part of the police department’s “Prescription Pill Take Back Day.”

According to a report from the Anne Arundel County Police Department, residents handed over “several hundred bottles” of expired and unused medications on Oct. 29.

Powerful medications like Oxycontin, Percocet and Fentanyl were among the pills collected throughout the four police districts in the county.

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The turnout for last week’s event, sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Agency, surpassed the previous operation in April, when 251 pounds of prescription medication was handed over by residents, according to the report.

Filling 13 boxes and weighing about 325 pounds, the medication collected last week will now be processed properly as opposed to being flushed down a toilet or tossed in the trash or various other inappropriate methods.

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As , pouring these types of drugs down a toilet or sink can cause serious problems to the local water system.

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