Avalon Police Participate in ‘Operation Take Back New Jersey’

AVALON — The Avalon Police Department will participate in a statewide program de-signed to safely remove unwanted and expired prescription drugs from the community. “Operation Take Back New Jer-sey” will be held on Sat., Sept. 25, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Avalon Borough Hall, 3100 Dune Drive.
“The goal of this pro-gram is to afford residents the opportunity to safely discard unwanted prescription drugs from their homes,” said Avalon Police Chief David Dean. “Residents will be able to drop off their unwanted, unused, and expired prescription medications for safe and proper disposal, with no questions asked. The Avalon Police Department is proud to participate in this program, and encourages all residents to take advantage of this opportunity,” he added.
“Operation Take Back New Jersey” will be con-ducted under a grant provided by the United States Department of Justice, and by the Drug Enforcement Administration. This safe, voluntary disposal program will help prevent prescription medications from falling into the hands of minors or making their way into the illicit market in local communities.
Dozens of police departments throughout the state of New Jersey will participate in this program. “Many residents have unwanted or expired prescriptions in-side their homes,” Dean said. “This is an excellent opportunity to eliminate these drugs from your home while at the same time preventing these drugs from getting into the hands of people who should not have them,” he continued.
John G. McCabe, Jr., acting special agent in charge of the DEA New Jersey Division stated, “Last year New Jersey opened its medicine cabinets and we collected over 9,000 pounds of medicine that was unwanted.
This year, we are very excited about the continued support brought on by Operation Take Back New Jersey, and we hope all citizens will take time to eliminate any and all medicines that are not suitable for proper medical use.
The more public attention we bring to this issue, the more we trust that people will become educated on the dangers of prescription drug abuse.”
According to McCabe and Avalon Police Chief David Dean, the most recent studies by Monitoring the Future, University of Michigan, be-tween 1997 and 2007, stated that treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent. In addition, between 2004 and 2008, the number of visits to hos-pital emergency departments involving the non-medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent.
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