[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office announces prescription drug safety initiative

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office announces prescription drug safety
initiative
By The Times-Picayune 
March 08, 2010, 2:39PM
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office is asking parish residents to turn
in prescription medications they no longer need and reminds them to be safe
in storing the medication they are still using as part of its "Operation
Medicine Cabinet'' program.

The program's goal is to reduce the availability of prescription drugs among
those who don't have a legitimate medical reason for having them, the
Sheriff's Office said in a news release. The Sheriff's Office said many
teen-agers start using drugs by stealing prescription tablets from their
medicine cabinets, including such drugs as Vicodin, Xanax and Valium.

Residents can call the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office at (504) 271-DOPE
and arrangements will be made to have unneeded prescription drugs turned in
and destroyed.

"Don't toss them in the trash where they can be removed by someone,'' Chief
Deputy Sheriff James Pohlmann said. "And don't flush them in a bathroom.
Such drugs already are polluting water supplies and trace amounts are being
found in fish and in water supplies.''

Col. Chad Clark, commander of the Special Investigations Division, said that
in talking with teen-agers who are addicted to prescription medications,
"they often say they have raided their parents' medicine cabinet and even
friends' parents' medicine cabinets. Parents need to make sure they have a
means of properly storing prescriptions drugs so they don't end up in the
hands of others."