Shed The Meds Event Held at Brady Park

Normally, the news that people were seen bringing large quantities of drugs to an area park would be a major cause for concern, but when it happened on Saturday, it benefitted the community.

Regular citizens brought the drugs to Brady Park as part of Senator Charles Fuschillo's "Shed the Meds" Program.

Fuschillo (R-Merrick) wants your old, legal prescription medications that you've been either contemplating throwing out or are just sitting on the shelf in your medicine cabinet, collecting dust.

The "Shed The Meds" program held it's third annual event this year in the parking lot of Brady Park on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

"It's part of a program to help constituents properly dispose of their medications, other than flushing them down the toilet," Fuschillo  said. "We want to protect the environment, as well as help the families get rid of expired or unused medication."

According to Fuschillo , flushing unused medications could have numerous negative effects on sources of water, and simply throwing them out opens the door for theft and abuse by whoever might find them.

Fuschillo and several aides had multiple bins set up in the parking lot, and residents were welcome to either walk over or drive up in their cars to hand over their meds. Minor documentation was requested (but not required), purely for statistical reasons.

"We try to make this as convenient as possible," Fuschillo said.

Also present for the event were several Nassau County police. Officer Kurt F. Faraczek said their role was the safe transport of the collected drugs their next destination.

"Basically, what's being done is that Senator Fuschillo is running this part of it [collecting the drugs]," he said. "The other part is being run by the Drug Enforcement Agency. When they're done here in Brady Park, we take the drugs over to the DEA, who are currently at the 7th precinct garage, we drop them off, and the DEA takes them to be incinerated."

Doreen Warwick, who lives local to Brady Park, had decided to stretch her legs and drop off a bag of expired pills.

"This is the right thing to do," she said. "This is perfect. I'm glad we have something like this, because in the past...what do I do with them?"

Instead of walking, Edward P. McKernam decided to try out Shed The Meds' drive-through service instead, handing off some old medicine to be destroyed.

"My two reasons were, one, if my house was ever burglarized, painkillers from an operation could wind up in the wrong hands," he said. "The other thing is, if you flush it, this stuff eventually gets into the ground water, and it just keeps coming back. It's the proper disposal for a lot of reasons."

The event was successful; as of noon on Saturday, Fuschillo estimated they had already collected "several hundred pounds" of various medications.

Florence Kurkjian decided to dispose of her pharmaceuticals that day to keep her grandchildren safe.

"Something like this, you really have to get rid of it," she said. "My daughter moved out here, and I moved in with her, so I wanted to get rid of these meds because she's got little ones."

Fuschillo is planning to hold another Shed The Meds event in Bellmore in July.