East End Medication Disposal Program Collects One Ton Of Drugs In One Year

This month marks a year since Group for the East End partnered with seven East End Police Departments with support from Suffolk County’s Drinking Water Protection Program to create the East End Medication Disposal Program.

Since then, local police stations have collected 1 ton of substances, nearly 2,000 pounds of potential pollutants to be kept out of the waterways, drinking water, and safely removed from the community.

“I can tell you that the Medication Disposal Program has been very well received by all residents of Southold Town, as witnessed by the large amounts of unwanted medications that have been disposed of in the container in our lobby,” Southold Town Chief of Police Martin Flatley said in a press release. “Our department has attempted to make the drop-off box as accessible as possible to Southold Town residents to encourage this program by placing it in our Headquarters lobby and making it available to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, our residents have taken advantage of this program since its inception throughout the first year at a steady rate.”

The program encourages residents to dispose of unused medicines in a Medication Drop Box permanently located at nearby police stations in order to keep these potential pollutants out of our drinking water.

Flushing prescription and over-the-counter medications down the toilet, which was previously recommended, can contaminate our drinking water as well as our bays and harbors.

“It is critically important now more than ever to do what we can to help protect water quality. This program provides an easy opportunity for every East End resident to pitch in to help protect our drinking and surface waters,” Jenn Hartnagel, Senior Environmental Advocate with Group for the East End said in a press release.

Proper disposal of medications also helps prevent drug misuse, abuse and harm to children, pets and others.

According to Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, “the success of the East End Medication Disposal Program is the result of the community coming together, identifying the problem and coming up with practical solutions to help protect our drinking water by educating the public about the proper disposal of unused medications.”

This month, the Drug Enforcement Administration will implement a ruling allowing pharmacies, hospitals and other like facilities to have “take back” boxes or mail-in programs to dispose of all types of pharmaceutical substances, including controlled substances. Prior to this, only law enforcement agencies were allowed to handle take-back boxes and events. In the meantime, police departments in all five East End towns carry the disposal boxes, as well as village police departments in East Hampton, Westhampton Beach and Sag Harbor.

For more information, visit groupfortheeastend.org/meds/.