Howell Police Offer To Pick Up Unwanted Medications

HOWELL, NJ — In the continuing efforts to get opioids off the streets and keep them out of the hands of addicts, the Howell Alliance and Howell Township police have announced a new program to pick up unneeded prescription medications.

The program, which began March 1, is an outgrowth of Project Medicine Drop, where people can drop off unwanted medications in a secured drop box at the Howell police department.

Project Medicine Drop is in place in dozens of towns across New Jersey, and has removed tons of unneeded or unused prescriptions pills from potential circulation in the four years of its existence. Its main target, of course, is opioid pain killers, but any kinds of pill medications can be dropped off.

Of course, doing so means going to the police station to do so, and that isn't always easy, especially in cases where someone lacks transportation or has a disability. The new service from the police department will make that easier. Many of the pills that end up on the black market were stolen from medicine cabinets, where they sat gathering dust.

"Misused prescription drugs can lead to heroin and other drug addictions," a flier about the program reads. "2,500 youths every day take a prescription pain reliever to intentionally get high for the first time; the majority of abused prescription drugs come from family, friends and home medicine cabinets."

'This program will help keep dangerous and addictive drugs out of the hands of our community," the police department said in a Facebook post announcing the program.

According to the Howell Alliance, there were 61 overdose deaths in Howell in 2018 and there have been 11 as of March 4 in 2019. Opioid deaths across the country have surpassed motor vehicle crashes in terms of number of people killed yearly.

For more information about the Howell Alliance, which works on drug use prevention programs through a variety of efforts, visit the township's webpage for the alliance by clicking here.

To request pick-up of any medication, call 732-938-4111, the non-emergency number for the police department.

Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Howell Patch on Facebook.