Heights Police Conduct 'Operation Take Back' Saturday

Hasbrouck Heights Police Department will once again offer the citizens of the borough the chance to dispose of their unwanted, unused and expired medications this 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. in the community policing room at the municipal building.

Division Operation Take Back NJ is to provide a safe and legal method for the citizens of New Jersey to dispose their unwanted, unused, and expired medicines.

Each year, experts say, a growing number of teenagers quietly turn to a seemingly unlikely source to score drugs — their parents’ medicine cabinets. According to the most recent studies, Monitoring the Future, University of Michigan, between 1997 and 2007, treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent.

In addition, between 2004 and 2008, the number of visits to hospital emergency department involving the non- medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent.

The goal of the program is to allow the citizens of New Jersey 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 or into the illicit market in our communities.