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. In the first half of this year the Ocean County Prosecutor’s office coordinated pill burns destroying 5400lbs of over the counter medications.

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.

The most recent pill burn which took place on July 17 accounted for over 2500lbs of unused medications safely destroyed. 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.

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

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