Drug Collection Bin at Northport Police Station and More

This month, Operation Medicine Cabinet becomes available 24/7 just inside the door of the stationhouse on Main Street. 

Thanks to The David R. Portmore Memorial Fund for Crime Prevention, the reclamation box has been established for the safe disposal of unused and expired non-liquid medications with no questions asked. 

David, the son of Northport residents Eileen Callahan and René Fiechter, was a U.S. Navy sailor. In 1991, while enroute to his newly assigned ship in Long Beach, California, he drove through a drug infested high crime area and was robbed and murdered.

David’s story is dramatic and tragic and could be pulled from a TV crime show, but drug abuse is personal and local too.  It can be as simple as a teen opening a parent’s medicine cabinet to take some prescription pain killers.

Dumping drugs down our drains hurts our water system. Keeping them or throwing them away increases accessibility. Among adolescents, prescription and over-the-counter medication account for most of the frequently abused drugs. 
Misperceptions about their safety, an increase in availability and varied motivations for their abuse have all played a part.  The majority of prescription drugs abused are obtained unknowingly from friends and relatives and sometimes from just laying around our medicine cabinets!

The encourages the community in their use of the box in Northport and at the Suffolk County 2^nd Police Precinct. 

The David R. Portmore Memorial Fund for Crime Prevention was established in his memory to support local projects.  For further information, donations or project suggestions please contact the Fund at 7 Bluff Point Rd. Northport.

In addition, please try to attend a showing of the being held April 8 -10. 

The Saturday, April 9 matinee performance at 2p.m. pm is titled “Distractions While Driving” which is student written and performed and is designed for teens and parents.

There will be a panel discussion following the performance and donations will be accepted to benefit the Northport-East Northport Drug & Alcohol Task Force.  

Next month’s article will cover underaged binge drinking. The next meeting of the task force is scheduled for Friday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in the Brosnan building cafeteria.