Delco police unveil prescription-drug drop boxes

MEDIA The officers who gathered Tuesday in Media told a familiar story.

A patient undergoes a medical procedure and comes home with a bottle of painkillers. He takes a few to recuperate, then leaves the rest untouched.

His teenage son finds the pills and tries one. He gets hooked. The pills run at least $30 apiece, so the new abuser seeks a cheaper alternative - heroin.

"Getting medications off the street is the first step in combatting abuse," said Marple Township Police Chief Tom Murray, "and protecting our children from the horrors of addictions."

The chief described that scenario as he and other officials from across Delaware County unveiled a program designed to keep powerful medications away from potential abusers. The centerpiece is a set of 10 sturdy receptacles where citizens can dispose of unwanted medicines safely and anonymously, rather than leaving them in their cabinets.

A study released Monday said that Pennsylvania ranked 14th in the country for deaths from drug overdoses. The state's rate of overdose deaths has nearly doubled since 1999 - a fact that the study attributed mostly to the rise of prescription-drug abuse. Prescription drugs now cause more deaths each year than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Delaware County's new boxes, about the size of mailboxes, will be stationed in nine police stations and the county government center. They will be bolted to the floor and can be opened only with a key.

Simply throwing away unwanted pills or flushing them down the toilet means the medicines end up in landfills and sewers, contaminating the region's water supply, County Council member David J. White noted. The drop boxes avoid that problem. At least once a week, they will be emptied by investigators from the District Attorney's Office, and the contents will be destroyed in an incinerator.

To cover the cost of the boxes, $700 each, as well as the disposal of the drugs and new drug-education programs, the county received a five-year, $625,000 federal grant, Council Vice Chairman Mario Civera Jr. said.

District Attorney Jack Whelan said the county was applying for other grants so that it could install the drop boxes in additional police stations.

The colorful boxes bear drug-abuse facts and a picture of a pastel array of medications. They also have photographs of the County Council members and Whelan on three sides.

"In Delaware County, we are committed to prevention strategies that work," White said. "We urge residents to go to their medicine cabinets today. ... Getting one bottle of OxyContin off the street can save one person from an addiction or death."