Drug Take Back Day scheduled for 10/29

The fall Drug Take Back Day provided by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Department is scheduled for this upcoming Saturday Oct. 29 from 8:00am-3:00pm. The last event like this was held on April 30, 2011 and Akwesasne lead the state in participation on that Prescription Drug Disposal event. Community members wishing to dispose of their expired medicines were able to stop in and drop them off into containers that were sealed and then incinerated.

At that April Drug Disposal event 4 boxes (1’X3’) were filled with expired medication from Akwesasne’s medicine cabinets. The oldest bottle of prescription medication that was dropped off was from around 1993 according to the person who dropped it off. Community members drove up and handed over a few pills at a time while in some cases full gallon Ziplock bags of unused medication was delivered. It was up to the person dropping off the medication whether they wanted to get out and put the medicine in the box themselves or hand it over to the Officers on duty.

“This program is nothing to be shameful over and community members shouldn’t be worried about turning in their expired medications,” said Detective Sgt. Matthew Rourke who is the coordinator on this project with the SRMT PD. “Having Akwesasne turn in the most expired prescription drugs is a good thing because that means there are less in the homes and less being flushed into the septic systems.”

It is important NOT to flush or pour unwanted, unused or expired medication down the drain. This includes expired and unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Flushed medication can get into the lakes, rivers and streams and research has shown that continuous exposure to low levels of medications has altered the behavior and physiology of fish and aquatic organisms.

If you are interested in participating in the upcoming Drug Take Back Day start by checking all of the expiration dates on your prescription and/or over-the-counter medications. Once you have that sorted take all of the unwanted/unused medication to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Station parking lot between 8:00am-3:00pm on Saturday. From there Detective Sgt. Rourke will place everything into a container and seal it in front of you – no one will be checking labels or looking to see what is being dropped off, this system is anonymous. After 3:00pm the DEA Agents will arrive and load everything into a van and it will go to be incinerated after everything is weighed. Participants don’t have to worry about peeling labels off medication bottles because no one will open the boxes to look at them.

The biggest change to this day’s Drug Take Back event is that the SRMT PD has ordered 500 Halloween bags and will be distributing them to anyone who wants to stop in. They are hoping to give all of the bags away and to also get the unwanted drugs dropped off in the process.

This event is open to everyone in the Akwesasne and surrounding community. If there are any housebound elders who cannot make it to this event they can make an appointment with Detective Sgt. Rourke to have the medications picked up prior to the event. For more information about the Drug Take Back Day contact the SRMT PD at 518-358-9200.