Drop Off Used or Expired Prescription Medications At Your Local Police Station

Unused or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue, leading to potential accidental poisoning, misuse, and overdose. Pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as street drugs when taken without a prescription or a doctor’s supervision. The non-medical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in America.
The majority of teenagers abusing prescription drugs get them from family and friends — and the home medicine cabinet. Unused prescription drugs thrown in the trash can be retrieved and abused or illegally sold.

Medicines that are flushed or poured down the drain can end up polluting our waters, impacting aquatic species, and contaminating our food and water supplies. Most medicines are not removed by wastewater treatment plants or septic systems. Scientists have found medicines in surface, ground and marine waters as well as soils and sediments in the Pacific Northwest. Even at very low levels, medicines in the environment hurt aquatic life. Only flush medications in an emergency situation, or there is great risk that there will be accidental exposure to, including ingestion of, potentially dangerous medicines by children and others, including pets.

Proper disposal of unused drugs saves lives and protects the environment.

Lock Your Medications

The CDC has reported that fewer than 3% of households lock up their schedule prescription medications. It also reports that 70% of schedule medications such as narcotics, sleeping pills, and central nervous system depressants are obtained for illegal use from a friend or relative, and more frequently from their medicine cabinets.

Abuse of schedule prescription medications has led to an epidemic of drug overdose in young people. From 2000 to 2009, the number of deaths increased by 90%, and from 2010 to 2013, instances of heroin overdose tripled. The CDC has reported that 75% of heroin users began their drug use with prescription opioids.

You can help prevent this by locking up your medications!

If you are need of a lock box, email northwesthillspc@gmail.com and we will send you one for FREE!!!

Start a Conversation

Change starts at home. The earlier teens start using substances, the greater their chances of continuing to use substances and develop use problems later in life. Share the videos below to show your teens the real truth about drinking alcohol. 

Sign our Safe Party Parent Registry and pledge to never serve alcohol to anyone underage in your household. Also, learn about Connecticut’s Social Host Law, an act prohibiting adults from allowing minors to possess alcoholic liquor in dwelling units and on private property.