National Drug Take Back Day – April 27
Prevent Drug Thefts, Abuse and Overdoses

On Saturday April 27th, Peapack and Gladstone Police Department will host a collection site at 1 School Street in Peapack (Peapack and Gladstone Municipal Building). The hours for the collection will be 10:00AM to 2:00 PM.

This program is anonymous and all efforts will be made to protect the anonymity of individuals disposing of medications. No questions or requests for identification will be made. Individuals should deposit medication freely and independently.

Individuals may dispose of medication either in its original container or by removing medication from its container and disposing directly into the drug disposal box. If the original container is submitted, the individual should be encouraged to remove the prescription label if it contains any personal identifying information.

Liquid products, such as cough medicine, should remain sealed in their original container. Please be sure that the cap is tightly sealed to prevent leakage.

Syringes and other sharp instruments will NOT be accepted.

SOMERVILLE – Sheriff Frank Provenzano announces the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Take Back Day on Saturday, April 27. A Sheriff’s Officer will be posted in front of the Somerset County Administration Building at 20 Grove St. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to collect outdated, unwanted or unused medications – free of charge and no questions asked. Prescription and over-the-counter medications will be accepted.
Addictive prescription drugs that are thrown away or left untended on shelves and in drawers at home are often stolen and either abused or sold by family members and visitors. That’s why the DEA and thousands of its state, local and tribal law enforcement and community partners are holding another Prescription Drug Take Back Day at over 5,000 sites around the country.

America is experiencing an epidemic of addiction, overdose and death due to abuse of prescription drugs, particularly opioid painkillers. An estimated 6.4 million Americans age 12 and over – 2.4 percent of the population – abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health released last fall, more than abuse cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and methamphetamine combined. Drug overdoses now are the leading cause of injury-related death in the United States, eclipsing deaths from motor vehicle crashes or firearms. The majority of prescription drug abusers report that they obtain their drugs from friends and family, including from the home medicine cabinet.

Last October, Americans turned in more than 900,000 pounds of unused or expired prescription medications. This brings the total amount of prescription drugs collected by the DEA since the fall of 2010 to 10,878,950 pounds.

The public can find a nearby collection site by calling 1-800-882-9539 or by visiting the DEA website at https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html. Only pills and other solids, like patches, can be brought to the collection sites – liquids, needles or other sharps will not be accepted.

“For our community’s safety, I look forward to continued efforts in safety and education for our residents to achieve victory against drug abuse,” said Sheriff Provenzano.
Residents wishing to dispose of medications year-round can do so by dropping them off at the Sheriff’s Office medicine collection drop box, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The drop box is located in the lower level of the Somerset County Administration Building at 20 Grove St., near the entrance to the Sheriff’s Office.
Additional 24/7 drop boxes are located at the following participating municipalities in Somerset County (liquids and syringes are not accepted at these locations):
• Bernards Township Police Department, 1 Collyer Lane, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920, (908) 766-1122.
• Branchburg Police Department, 590 Old York Road at Route 202 North, Branchburg, NJ 08876, (908) 526-3830.
• Franklin Township Police Department, 495 DeMott Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873, (732) 873-2300.
• Hillsborough Township Police Department, 379 S. Branch Road, Hillsborough NJ 08844, (908) 369-4323.
• North Plainfield Police Department, 263 Somerset St., North Plainfield, NJ 07060, (908) 769-2937.


For more information about medicine collection in Somerset County, contact Sheriff’s Officer Dave Daneker at (908) 231-7140, ext. 9, or Capt. Steve SanAntonio at (908) 231-7168.