Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano and Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter announced today that the Nassau County Police Department will be participating in the DEA’s 2nd Prescription Drug Take-Back Program this Saturday, April 30th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Last September, Americans turned in more than 242,000 pounds—121 tons—of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites nationwide that were operated by more than 3,000 of the DEA’s state and local law enforcement partners.
This Saturday, Nassau County residents will be able to bring their unwanted, unused, and/or expired medications to any of the NCPD’s eight precincts garages, which are located:
NCPD First Precinct: 900 Merrick Road, Baldwin NY 11510
NCPD Second Precinct: 7700 Jericho Turnpike, Woodbury, NY 11797
NCPD Third Precinct: 214 Hillside Avenue, Williston Park, NY 11596
NCPD Fourth Precinct: 1699 Broadway, Hewlett, NY 11557
NCPD Fifth Precinct: 1655 Dutch Broadway, Elmont, NY 11003
NCPD Sixth Precinct: 100 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030
NCPD Seventh Precinct: 3636 Merrick Road, Seaford, NY 11783
NCPD Eighth Precinct: 286 Wantagh Avenue, Levittown, NY
“Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet,” said Mangano in a statement. “Eliminating these unwanted, unused and expired medications from Nassau County homes will go a long way to helping protect the young people of this county as well as children from accidental ingestion. To that end, I urge all residents to go through their home medicine cabinets and take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of their pharmaceuticals at any of our drop off locations.”
This Saturday’s Prescription Drug Take-Back Program is a nationwide effort that the DEA has coordinated. Currently, the DEA has approximately 5,100 collection sites nationwide. Collection sites in every local community can be found by going to www.dea.gov. This site is continuously updated with new take-back locations.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are increasing at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.
The Nassau County Police Department has hosted and coordinated multiple drug disposal programs in the past and has found it to be very beneficial in the fight against heroin.
