Residents have opportunity to turn in unused medicine

FREEHOLD — There is a new threat to teenagers and young adults and it is as close as a bathroom medicine cabinet. The threat is the potential abuse of prescription drugs by people for whom those drugs were not prescribed.

Police departments across New Jersey are trying to do their part to eliminate that threat with a program called Operation Medicine Cabinet.

Freehold Borough police Lt. Mark Wodell said the Freehold Borough Police Department headquarters on Jackson Street will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 14 so that residents may turn in their unused, unwanted or expired prescription medications for safe disposal.

Police officials said getting the drugs out of homes will reduce the likelihood of them being abused.

Wodell said, "The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in collabora- tion with the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General and the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey has set up Operation Medicine Cabinet across the state and over 250 police departments are participating the program."

Wodell said people should take advantage of the program and dispose of their unneeded prescription drugs to "prevent either an accidental or purposeful taking of those drugs, no questions asked."

"It is a good opportunity to get rid of the medications in an environmentally friendly manner," Wodell said.

People are being asked not to flush the unneeded drugs down the toilet because the medications can infiltrate the water system.

According to Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Gerard P. McAleer, "People are living in a world where prescription medication saves lives, treats ailments and eliminates pain." He added, however, that there is "a serious problem when something inherently good becomes bad in the wrong hands."

McAleer noted that 70 percent of people who abuse painkillers are getting the drugs from a family medicine cabinet or from a friend's medicine cabinet.

Freehold Borough residents who bring their unwanted, unused and expired prescription drugs to the police station for safe disposal on Nov. 14 will be helping to prevent the drugs from getting into the wrong hands, according to Wodell.

Special Agent Douglas S. Collier, public information officer with the New Jersey DEA, is heading up the project. He said the agency is "excited about this first-time initiative."

"We have two objectives," he said. "The first is to make people aware that prescription drug abuse is on the rise among adolescents and the elderly. Our concern was for every age group, however."

Collier said the incidence of prescription drug abuse is on the rise in emergency room visits. He reported that 70 percent of people who abuse prescription drugs say they obtain them from a friend's or a family member's medicine cabinet.

"Here is why we must look through new eyes at the medicine cabinet as an access point for the misuse or abuse of prescription drugs or over-the-counter medications.

"We at the DEA believe in good medicine. When I have a headache, I want something to make it go away, but we don't like bad behavior," he said.

Citing statistics from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Collier reported that two-thirds of adolescents do not think they can become addicted to prescription drugs.

Collier said adolescents believe that since adults take the drugs and doctors prescribe them, it's OK to take them.

"Because of this attitude and aptitude, we started this initiative and to date 425 police departments throughout the state are participating to provide a day when these drugs can be safely and lawfully disposed of, no questions asked," he said.

He said Monmouth County has 100 percent participation from police departments thanks to the efforts of Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin.

The second goal, according to Collier, is to have local police departments conduct this initiative on their own once a year.