Operation Medicine Cabinet: Turn in Unwanted Prescription Drugs to Police

The shelves of medicine cabinets in many Rockalnd County homes are line with old pill bottles with medicines that may be expired or no longer needed. For local police and health officials, those bottles are a medical emergency — and a crime — waiting to happen.

Police throughout Rockland have been teaming up through "Operation Medicine Cabinet" to convince local residents to turn in their old or unwanted medications for disposal. By getting rid of the drugs, police say they are preventing the medications from getting into the hands of children or young adults who abuse or illegally sell the drugs.

Operation Medicine Cabinet allows Rocklanders to turn in drugs for disposal, no questions asked. This weekend, police are accepting drus for disposal from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at:

- Rockland County Sheriff’s Office, 55 New Hempstead Road, New City

- Stony Point Police Department, 79 Route 210, Stony Point

While drugs can be turned in, household hazardous waste is not accepted for disposal in this program.

Operation Medicine Cabinet is organized through the Sheriff's Department in conjunction with local police departments. Drugs gathered in the program are disposed of at an incinerator in Poughkeepsie.