Crime & Safety

Unused Prescription Drugs Collected Saturday to Prevent Deadly Abuse

Two locations in Orland Park, including the police department, will be collecting expired, unwanted and unused medicine, both from prescriptions and over the counter sources.

Law enforcement agencies all over the country are looking to collect clamp down on one of the most plentiful sources of potentially dangerous drugs – your medicine cabinet.

The Orland Park Police Department is taking part in the National Take Back Initiative, organized in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Agency. On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. medicine will be collected at two locations in Orland Park:

  • , 15100 S. Ravinia Ave.
  • , 10500 Orland Parkway

The drop offs can include both pill and liquid medicine, from both prescription and over the counter sources, according to a release from the Orland Park Police Department. Glass containers, aerosol sprays, canisters, IV solutions, illegal drugs and syringes won’t be accepted in this effort.

Find out what's happening in Orland Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To remain confidential, people will not have to check in or provide identification when dropping off medicine, Orland Park Police Lt. Joseph Mitchell wrote in an email Wednesday. An officer will be guarding the collection box to prevent theft, but no check in is required, Mitchell wrote.

“We do not want people to be fearful or concerned that the Orland Park Police Department is seeking to investigate them,” Mitchell wrote. “We simply want these potentially life threatening discarded, unused, unwanted drugs out of area resident’s medicine cabinets and into an incinerator.”

Find out what's happening in Orland Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Medicine can be turned over in its original container, or it can be removed and dumped into the disposal box, according to the release. The medicine and containers will be incinerated.  

"Every year we see a new drug in the community,” Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy said at the April 3 village board meeting. “Now it's heroin, but the deaths from prescription drugs exceed deaths from cocaine and heroin."

McCarthy said 160 pounds of drugs were collected in town during the last take-back day on Oct. 29, 2011.

"We are going to try and raise the amount from 160 pounds to 500 pounds,” McCarthy said at the meeting. “Any prescription drugs taken can save lives."

Across the country 188.5 tons of drugs were collected at 5,327 sites during the Oct. 29 collection, according to the release.

Both the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention identify a faster rise in prescription drug abuse than other substances. Other studies have shown prescription pill abuse can be a gateway to heroin and other intravenous drugs.

For more information, contact the Orland Park Police Department at 708-349-4111.

 

Want the news delivered? Sign up for our daily email newsletter.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.