National Operation Medicine Cabinet Day

  Keep Saturday, April 26, 2014, open on your calendar so you can participate in National Operation Medicine Cabinet Day, a drug abuse prevention measure sponsored locally by the Orangetown Substance Abuse Committee, the Orangetown Police Department Drug Enforcement Agency, Rockland Sheriff's Department, and the New York State Police. On that Saturday, you can take positive action against the epidemic of pain killer addiction rapidly infiltrating our families right here in Rockland County. 

            Operation Medicine Cabinet is a program in which you are all urged to voluntarily rid your home medicine cabinets of all unused or old prescription medications, including pain killers, medicated ointments, and inhalers, as well as over-the-counter medications. Just place any unused medications in a plastic bag and drop them off at the Orangetown Police Department located at 26 West Orangeburg Road in Orangeburg. Medications can be dropped off between 10 am and 2 pm.  You can also drop these medications off at the CVS stores in Pearl River and Orangeburg from 10 am - 1 pm. (For more information on Operation Medicine Cabinet, call 845-359-3700.)

            Although National Operation Medicine Cabinet Day is slated for Saturday, April 26, 2014, unused medications can be dropped off any Saturday throughout the year at the Orangetown Police Headquarters from 12 pm to 6 pm.  

            The act of cleaning our medicine cabinets is a very important and effective one. The temptation to improperly use medications, particularly painkillers, is very strong. In fact, painkiller abuse in the United States increased by 75% between 2002 and 2010, according to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

            These days, the contents of the family medicine cabinet can easily compare a loaded gun left out in the open, ready for anyone’s taking. Anyone that comes into your house and uses your bathroom has access to your medications: family members, friends of your children, neighbors, etc. Do you keep a record of the amount of pills remaining in your pill bottles? Would you notice if a few were missing? Have you installed a padlock on your medicine cabinet to keep potentially dangerous medications out of the hands of the misguided? Wouldn’t is be easier just to get rid of all unused and old prescription medications than to live with that worry? On Saturday, April 26, 2014, you can safely dispose of any unnecessary, potentially dangerous medications by participating in National Operation Medicine Cabinet Day.

Operation Medicine Cabinet is a concept that only works if you—the community—participate.  Together we can stem the blight of drug addition in our own community. All it takes is a little medicine cabinet cleanout.