The Borough of Quakertown became the first municipality in Bucks County to place a permanent “drop box” in their police department headquarters for citizens to safely dispose of expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.
“We have been participating in the national take back days since last year”, said Ray Fox, Chair of the Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Coalition, (UBHCHY), “however we wanted to provide a safe and secure place our community members could go on any day to dispose of these drugs and not wait for months for a special day.”
Mr. Fox will present a $500 check to Borough of Quakertown at the April 6th borough council meeting to help offset the cost of the box.
Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are increasing at alarming rates, especially for teenagers who report they can easily obtain prescription pills from medicine cabinets in their own and other people’s homes. According to the most recent youth survey conducted by the UBHCHY in 2010, 12% of graduating seniors in Upper Bucks highs schools have taken someone else’s prescription pills in the past 30 days.
“After participating in last year’s successful national drug take back days, Detective Don Bender encouraged us to purchase a safe and secure box that we could place in our lobby. This way people can get rid of their unused prescriptions on a more regular basis,” said Scott McElree, Quakertown Borough Manager and Police Chief. “We are very pleased that our local coalition can help with the funding of the drop box.”
Lee Rush, Community Organizer for the UBHCHY is hopeful that other police departments throughout Bucks County will soon follow the lead set by the Quakertown Police Department.
“This will certainly help get rid of unused and expired prescriptions and put them out of reach of young people,” said Rush. “However we hope this effort is duplicated throughout the region so even more people can afford themselves of the opportunity to properly dispose of these prescriptions on any given day.”
On April 30th the third national Prescription Drug Take Back day will occur from 10 AM to 2 PM throughout the United States. Local sites in Upper Bucks county are listed at www.ubhchy.org and other sites throughout the region are listed at www.dea.gov.
The Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Coalition represents Palisades, Pennridge and Quakertown communities and is funded in part through a federal Drug Free Communities Support Program grant from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). For more information go to www.ubhchy.org or call 215-538-4799.