Dispose Of Unwanted Drugs In Rivertowns On National Take Back Day

RIVERTOWNS, NY — National Rx Take-Back Day is Saturday, and there are several places near the Rivertowns where you can dispose of unwanted, unneeded or expired medications.

This is the time to clean out drawers and cabinets of unused or expired drugs or medications — whether for people or pets — before they fall into the wrong hands or add to the stew of discarded pharmaceuticals found dissolved throughout the Hudson River.

"The safest way to dispose of medications is on a take-back day," said Caitlin Aberle, PharmD, the Associate Director of the Pharmacy for WMCHealth's Westchester Medical Center, Maria Fareri Children's Hospital and Behavioral Health Center.

WMCHealth is joining with local law enforcement agencies to host medication collection sites between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for unwanted, unused, or expired medications in collaboration with police departments in Westchester, Rockland, and Orange counties.

Many police departments and pharmacies across the Hudson Valley are participating; for example, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 3 County Center in Carmel. Here's a handy online search tool for a collection site near you.

National Drug Take Back Day is a national event. Its goal is to prevent medications from falling into the wrong hands and reduce the risk of misuse and addiction. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration's motto for medications is "Keep them safe. Clean them out. Take them back."

This is the 26th national Take Back Day. In October, for the 25th annual event, 300 tons of medications were collected nationwide — making the total over a quarter-century 8,950 tons.

This initiative addresses a couple of vital public safety and public health issues.

Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows year after year that most misused and abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including someone else’s medication being stolen from the home medicine cabinet.

In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines — flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash — both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Researchers in 2018 mapped out a stew of discarded pharmaceuticals dissolved throughout the Hudson River. Scientists based at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory say that in some places, levels may be high enough to affect aquatic life.

The medications — antibiotics, cholesterol and blood-pressure meds, acetaminophen and a dozen more — are believed to enter the river through sewage outfalls after people excrete unmetabolized doses, or when they flush unused pills or dump medicine down the drain.

Riverkeeper helped researchers test the water in 2016. They used the Ossining-based environmental watchdog's vessel to sample 72 sites along the river twice each, in May and July. Particularly high levels were found at the sewage outfalls in Orangetown in Rockland County, Yonkers in Westchester County, and Kingston in Ulster County.