Police Team up with DEA to Offer Residents Safe Way to Dispose of Unwanted Medications

Chief Michael J. Colaneri wants to inform residents that the borough’s will participate with the Drug Enforcement Administration in “Operation Take Back New Jersey,” a program which provides citizens a safe and legal way of disposing of unwanted, unused and expired medications.

The event will be held at , Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The law enforcement officials will dispose of these controlled substances in a safe and non-hazardous manner, preventing these pills from falling into the hands of juveniles or into the illicit market in area communities.

Each year a growing number of teenagers quietly turn to a seemingly unlikely source to score drugs – their parents and family members medicine cabinets. According to studies between 1997 and 2007, treatment for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent. Between 2004 and 2008 the number of visits to hospital emergency rooms involving the non-medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent.