OCEAN COUNTY – Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato recently announced that they have safely disposed of a whopping 34,860 pounds of prescription medicines since the start of the Project Medicine Drop program.
“Project Medicine Drop is the countywide initiative to make disposal of unused medications an easy convenient priority for Ocean County residents,” according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office (OCPO).
The program was conceived back in the summer of 2014. On May 15, 2018, the OCPO and Ocean County Law Enforcement supervised the safe disposal of 3,500 pounds of prescription drugs, contributing to that total of 34,860 pounds.
The amount of prescription drugs that the OCPO has collected and destroyed:
- October 3, 2014: 2,220 lbs.
- March 27, 2015: 2,880 lbs.
- July 17, 2015: 2,520 lbs.
- October 29, 2015: 2,300 lbs.
- December 2, 2015: 1,040 lbs.
- April 13, 2016 : 2,380 lbs.
- July 20, 2016: 2,960 lbs.
- October 26, 2016: 2,800 lbs.
- March 1, 2017: 3,280 lbs.
- August 3, 2017: 4,460 lbs.
- December 14, 2017: 4,420 lbs.
- May 18, 2018: 3,500 lbs.
The OCPO reported that nearly half of the towns in Ocean County have easily accessible prescription medication drop boxes located at police departments. “There is no excuse not to clean out and drop off these potentially dangerous meds,” they stated in a press release.
For more information on the program or where to drop off unused medications, call OCPO Lt. Cindy Boyd at 732-929-2027 Ext. 3025 or go to njconsumeraffairs.gov/meddrop or oceancountyprosecutor.org.
