PHOTOS: Thousands of pounds of Prescription Medications Burned

34Ocean 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, 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.

1Prosecutor 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.

2It 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.

[TLS]

 

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