Suffolk County unveiled "Operation Medicine Cabinet," this week, a program that will enable parents to drop off unwanted, unused, or expired medications at a safe and secure location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The initiative should encourage parents to rid their homes of unused and unwanted prescription medications that can easily become a first step on the path to adolescent drug abuse.
"Health and law enforcement professionals know that prescription opiate abuse is leading our young ones down the path to heroin use," said Suffolk County Exec. Steve Levy. "'Operation Medicine Cabinet' is designed to attack this epidemic at its earliest stage by reducing the risk that meds are unwittingly available to children and others who could use them in an unintended manner."
Through 'Operation Medicine Cabinet,' secure receptacles that resemble mailboxes will be placed inside each of Suffolk's seven police precincts. The initiative allows parents to use the receptacles anonymously, and its long-term objectives are to decrease cases of accidental ingestion of unknown or expired prescription drugs and to close the gateway to heroin abuse by reducing the availability of prescription drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin.
According to the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, numerous municipalities have offered one-time-only drop-off days, but 'Operation Medicine Cabinet' will make the Suffolk County Police Department the first department statewide to offer a permanent, 24/7 drop-off facility.
Drop-off locations
- First Precinct, 555 Route 109, West Babylon
- Second Precinct, 1071 Park Avenue, Huntington
- Third Precinct, 1630 Fifth Avenue, Bay Shore
- Fourth Precinct, 727 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hauppauge
- Fifth Precinct, 125 Waverly Avenue, Patchogue
- Sixth Precinct, 400 Route 25, Selden
- Seventh Precinct, 1491 William Floyd Parkway, Shirley
