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Home/Press Release/OC PILL DROP OFF PROGRAM PREVENTS ABUSE OF 13,340 LBS OF UNUSED PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS
Pill Drop Off Burn 201622

OC PILL DROP OFF PROGRAM PREVENTS ABUSE OF 13,340 LBS OF UNUSED PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato today announced that the concerted efforts of Ocean County Law Enforcement and residents have brought great success in disposing of unused prescription medications. On Wednesday (7/20) OCPO supervised the destruction of 2960 pounds of unused prescription meds, the largest pill burn to date. Since the programs start in the summer of 2014 over 13,340 pounds of various medicines were destroyed between October 3, 2014 and April 13, 2016. Below are the previous burn dates and totals:

 

  • October 3, 2014             2220 lbs.
  • March 27, 2015             2880 lbs.
  • July 17, 2015                  2520 lbs.
  • October 29, 2015          2300 lbs.
  • December 2, 2015        1040 lbs.
  • April 13, 2016               2380 lbs.

Prosecutor Coronato stated, “Unused medications often end up in the wrong hands, are used illegally, or find their way into our water supply. In the worst case scenarios these forgotten pain killing medications lead to addiction or teens becoming unwitting drug dealers”. Project Medicine Drop is the county wide initiative to make disposal of unused medications an easy convenient priority for Ocean County residents. The towns that participate by having easily accessible medication drop boxes at police department entrances are: Barnegat, Berkeley, Jackson, Lacey, Lakewood, Little Egg Harbor Township, Long Beach, Manchester Township, Ocean, Pt. Pleasant, Seaside Heights, Stafford, Toms River and Tuckerton.

It can be difficult to comprehend the amount of medications to account for such a huge total. These attached photos of OCPO detectives loading the pills into a box truck for transport to the burn should give you a good sense of the astounding volume. The stiff backs of the detectives can certainly attest to it.

Pill Burn-Dumping Pills

Pill Drop Off Burn 2016

OCPO Agent Denis Mitchell (left) gets a pill burn celebration happy dance lesson from OCPO’s Anthony Carrington III.

Pill Burn July 2016 best

Please do your part. “Clean Out & Drop Off” those unused meds. For more info go to: www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/meddrop or oceancountyprosecutor.org

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