Police departments across the county will give people a chance to dump old and out-of-date medicine Saturday.
It's a way to make sure children don't get their hands on dangerous prescription drugs, said Chief Gerald Tolbert of the Claremont Police Department.
Operation Medicine Cabinet lets people leave expired or unused medications, no questions asked, at any of eight locations.
People can leave drugs between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday.
"This is just a way of getting them off the street," Tolbert said. "It's a growing problem in our cities."
Tolbert guesses that every week, every law enforcement agency in every city finds someone in possession of another person's prescription painkillers. The drugs can be highly addictive.
"The reason we find these people is they've taken the drugs and they're not in the right frame of mind," he said.
Officers who collect the medications will incinerate them. That keeps pills and other medicines out of sewers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends flushing some medications, including painkillers such as Demerol, morphine and Percocet. That's because such medicines can be especially harmful or fatal to children, pets or people for whom they weren't prescribed.
Tolbert said his department alone collected between 8 and 12 pounds of pills and other medications during two previous drug drop-offs.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement