Ridgewood Police Hosting Drug Take Back Saturday

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The police department is hosting Operation Take Back Saturday.

Residents may dispose of their unused, unwanted, or expired medicine from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at police headquarters at 131 North Maple Ave.

Medicine, including liquids, may be disposed of in or out of its original container. Prescription labels should be removed from bottles.

Syringes and other sharp objects will not be accepted.

Operation Take Back is part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New Jersey Division's mission to provide a safe and legal method for residents to dispose of their medicine.

"Each year, experts say, a growing number of teenagers quietly turn to a seemingly unlikely source to score drugs — their parents' medicine cabinets," the DEA reported. "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."

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com