In several previous posts, we have talked about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and how the home medicine cabinet can sometimes become the unwitting source of drugs abused by teens. An interesting program has been developed and is being implemented in Suffolk County, in an effort to prevent such a possibility from happening.
A feature on the Bayport – Blue Point Patch shared details regarding Operation Medicine Cabinet, a police district-wide program that provides parents with a means to get rid of unwanted, unused or expired medicines in their homes. A first in the state of New York, the program is open to residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
County executive Steve Levy shared: “Health and law enforcement professionals know that prescription opiate abuse is leading our young ones down the path to heroin use… ‘Operation Medicine Cabinet’ is designed to attack this epidemic at its earliest stage by reducing the risk that meds are unwittingly available to children and others who could use them in an unintended manner.”
The program will place secure receptacles in each of the seven police precincts in Suffolk County, where residents can anonymously drop off medicines. While this program is in no way the first medicine drop-off – other municipalities have also organized one-time medicine drop off days – it is the first program that provides residents with a permanent, round-the-clock, medicine drop off facility.
In attendance during the program’s unveiling were Levy, Suffolk Legislator Steven Stern, Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, Health Services Commissioner Dr. James Tomarken and Environment and Energy Commissioner Carrie Meek-Gallagher.
Tags: medicine abuse, medicine cabinet abuse, operation medicine cabinet, prescription abuse
