The Capital Region does its part to get rid of unwanted prescription drugs

Posted at: 09/29/2012 11:22 PM
By: Dan Bazile

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COLONIE - For Bill Ready of Colonie, drugs are a necessity for his health. But he had too many leftovers just sitting in his medicine cabinet.

Ready, who stopped by today to give back some of his prescription drugs, told us, “These are drugs that are still current but weren't effective in my case. So I wanted to get rid of them, get them out of the house.”

Out of the house, to keep them from falling into the wrong hands -- someone his strong prescriptions were not meant for.

“We have five grandkids in an adjoining house so that's why.”

And that's why the D.E.A., the Drug Enforcement Agency, is holding the National Take Back Initiative. People like ready brought back their unwanted prescription drugs to dozens of locations in the Capital Region.

D.E.A special agent Jim Burns says studies show that young people who take prescription drugs for a non medical reason, find these drugs out of a friend or relative's medicine cabinet.

This is the second time Colonie police are participating in collecting them.

Sergeant Michael Franze of the Colonie police said today, “From the last time we did it, there was a lot of things from pain killers and things like that. They were the crux of the dangerous stuff that we were seeing.”

D.E.A. officials have collected about 11 tons of drugs in the Capital Region since the program started five years ago and more than 775 tons have been disposed of nationwide. They take the drugs and burn them.

So why not just flush them down the toilet?

“It eventually winds up in the rivers, the streams, and the ground water. Some people just throw it in the trash which then becomes a concern at the landfills. So this is really getting disposed of by the D.E.A. in a proper manner.”