Heights Police Conduct 'Operation Take Back' Next Weekend

Hasbrouck Heights Police Department will once again offer the citizens of the borough the chance to dipose of their unwanted, unused and expired medications next weekend as part of "Operation Take Back New Jersey."

The police will hold the collection Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the municipal building.

“Operation Take Back New Jersey” is a program to provide the citizens with a safe and legal method to dispose of their unwanted, unused, and expired medications.

Each year a growing number of teenagers quietly turn to a seemingly unlikely source to score drugs—their parents and family members medicine cabinets.

According to most recent studies, between 1997 and 2007, treatment for prescription painkillers increased more that 400 percent, and between 2004 and 2008 the number of visits to hospital emergency rooms involving the non-medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent.

The goal of the program is to allow the citizens of NJ to deliver all of their unused, unwanted, or expired medications to law enforcement officials who can in turn dispose of these controlled substances in a safe and non-hazardous manner, preventing these pills from falling into the hands of juveniles.