CHERRY
HILL – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa
and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
today expanded “Project Medicine Drop,”
a statewide initiative to help everyday citizens
join the fight against the abuse of addictive,
deadly prescription drugs. The
expansion includes a partnership with Covanta
Energy Corporation, a New Jersey-based business
that will enable police departments, free
of charge, to destroy medications turned
in by consumers. It also includes the installation
of new Project Medicine Drop boxes at the
Cherry Hill Police Department, Somerset
County Sheriff’s Office, Lower Township
Police Department, and Toms River Police
Department – more than doubling the
program’s capacity to receive consumers’
unwanted and expired medications.
“Prescription
painkiller abuse sends thousands of New
Jersey residents into addiction treatment
each year, and kills more Americans than
cocaine and heroin combined. We are fighting
this problem with targeted investigations
and enhanced tools to detect ‘pill
mills’ and ‘doctor shopping,’”
Attorney General Chiesa said. “Today,
by expanding Project Medicine Drop, we are
inviting New Jerseyans to join us in this
fight. At the Cherry Hill Police Department
and other sites throughout the state, you
can drop off your unused medications safely,
securely, and responsibly.”
Under
Project Medicine Drop, the Division of Consumer
Affairs installs lockable, metal “prescription
drug drop boxes” at select New Jersey
police departments and sheriff’s offices.
Members of the public are invited to come
in and use the boxes 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days a year, to dispose
of their unused and expired prescription
medications.
This
simple but important step helps keep excess
medications from falling into the hands
of those who might abuse them, or sell them
for abuse. It also helps protect the environment
– as it keeps harmful medications
from being flushed into the water supply.
Attorney
General Chiesa noted the Project Medicine
Drop pilot program, launched with three
North, Central, and South Jersey police
departments in November 2011, hit an initial
snag in that residents turned in substantially
more medications – approximately 400
pounds of pills and pill containers –
than were initially expected. Destruction
of the medications threatened to become
cost-prohibitive for the Little Falls Police
Department, Seaside Heights Police Department,
and Vineland Police Department.
Today’s
expansion of the program includes a new
partnership with Covanta, a Morristown-based
operator of energy-from-waste and renewable
energy facilities. The company will destroy
the medications at no cost to taxpayers,
thus potentially saving the police departments
thousands of dollars each year.
Also
today, Attorney General Chiesa announced
Project Medicine Drop is being expanded
with the addition of new prescription drug
drop boxes at the Somerset County Sheriff’s
Office, Cherry Hill Police Department, Lower
Township Police Department, and Toms River
Police Department. The drop boxes are in
place and ready to accept medications from
consumers. The Division’s goal is
to place at least one drop box in each of
New Jersey’s 21 counties by the end
of this year.
“We’re
not just helping consumers get excess medications
out of their homes. We are encouraging New
Jerseyans to think differently about their
prescription medications – including
how to use them responsibly and talk to
their family members about the dangers of
abuse,” Eric T. Kanefsky, Acting Director
of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs,
said.
New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Commissioner Bob Martin said, “The
DEP strongly supports this initiative, which
will provide a secure and environmentally
sound method of prescription drug disposal,
and one that will help protect our water
supply.”
Cherry
Hill Police Chief Rick Del Campo said, “The
Cherry Hill Police Department is proud to
lead this initiative in our county, and
to help residents take an active role in
the effort to keep unused medications from
being abused, and from polluting the environment.”
Through
Covanta’s Rx4Safety initiative, and
with approval from the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection, the company
accepts and destroys household medications,
free of charge, from any law enforcement
agency that partners with Project Medicine
Drop. The medications will be transported
to Covanta facilities in Newark, Rahway,
or Oxford. They will be consumed in furnaces
that convert municipal solid waste to create
steam and electricity. Since launching Rx4Safety
in 2010, Covanta has destroyed more than
240,000 pounds of unwanted medication and
prescription drugs at its facilities in
other states, free of charge; and is now
bringing the initiative to its home state
of New Jersey.
“Covanta
is extremely happy to now provide this service
in our home state and to New Jersey residents,”
said John G. Waffenschmidt, Covanta Energy
vice president of environmental science
and community affairs. “Energy-from-Waste
facilities produce clean, renewable energy
from everyday municipal solid waste and
provide a safe way to dispose of unwanted
medication. Our facilities are equipped
with state-of-the-art combustion controls
and air pollution control equipment to ensure
the destruction of these drugs in an environmentally
sound manner, one that protects the water
we depend upon day in and day out and ensures
that unwanted drugs are not available for
abuse.”
Attorney
General Chiesa and Acting Director Kanefsky
thanked the Cape May, Ocean, and Somerset
County Offices of Consumer Affairs for their
role in helping identify local law enforcement
partners for this initiative.
Project
Medicine Drop builds upon the success of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Initiative,
which offers single-day events during which
the public is invited to drop off their
unused medications at pre-identified, secure
locations. The next DEA-sponsored Take-Back
Day will be held April 28. Project Medicine
Drop, however, enables consumers to dispose
of unused medications at any time throughout
the year.
The
scope of America’s prescription drug
abuse problem is staggering:
-
New Jersey in 2010 saw more than 7,000
admissions to State-licensed or certified
substance abuse treatment programs due
to prescription painkiller abuse –
a 230 percent increase from 2005.
-
In June 2011, the New Jersey State Commission
of Investigation reported that a growing
number of young people are abusing prescription
drugs, and noted a significant trend
in which the practice has led to increases,
not only in the number of young people
addicted to painkillers, but to the
number of young people using heroin
as well.
-
Every day, 40 Americans die from an
overdose caused by prescription painkiller
abuse, according to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overdoses of opioid prescription drugs
now kill more people in the U.S. than
heroin and cocaine combined.
-
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
has reported that two in five teenagers
mistakenly believe prescription drugs
are “much safer” than illegal
drugs.
Project
Medicine Drop is one component of the Division
of Consumer Affairs’ comprehensive
effort to halt the diversion and abuse of
prescription drugs.
The
effort also includes the New Jersey Prescription
Monitoring Program, a statewide database
that tracks prescription data on Controlled
Dangerous Substances (CDS) and Human Growth
Hormone (HGH) medications dispensed in New
Jersey. It includes enhanced enforcement
initiatives, including a comprehensive reorganization
of the Division’s Enforcement Bureau
to focus on drug diversion investigations
and indiscriminate prescribing by healthcare
practitioners. And it includes strategies
to reduce the supply of drugs available
for abuse, educate the public about the
dangers of abuse, and enable recovery for
persons struggling with addiction.
For
much more information on the New Jersey
Division of Consumer Affairs' initiative
to halt the diversion and abuse of prescription
drugs, view the Division's NJPMP website
at www.NJConsumerAffairs.gov/pmp,
and the Division's Project Medicine Drop
website at www.NJConsumerAffairs.gov/meddrop.
Follow
the Division of Consumer Affairs on Facebook,
and check our online calendar of upcoming
Consumer
Outreach events.
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