[StBernard] Forty-nine pounds of mostly prescription drugs collected in Drug Take-Back Day in St. Bernard

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu May 1 21:05:36 EDT 2014


Forty-nine pounds of mostly prescription drugs collected in Drug Take-Back
Day in St. Bernard
Print NOLA Community Submission By NOLA Community Submission
on April 29, 2014 at 6:40 AM, updated April 29, 2014 at 6:43 AM

Several residents of St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans said they were glad
to hear the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office was collecting expired and no
longer used drugs at its Paris Road station on April 26 because they hadn't
known how to turn in such drugs they had.

"I'd been waiting for this to get rid of some things" and saw in the media
that the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office was collecting them, said Donnetta
Smith of New Orleans. Several people also said they knew not to dump
prescription pills in the toilet because it could get into disposed water
and harm wildlife or seafood in the swamps and not to throw it in the trash
where people could find the drugs.

The four-hour take-back event was successful, with 49 pounds of mostly
prescription drugs collected, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

"That is 49 pounds of drugs that could be easily abused that will never hit
our streets and will be incinerated,'' Pohlmann said.

Capt. Pat Childress, who is assigned by the Sheriff's Office to a federal
Drug Enforcement Administration task force, collected the surrendered items.

The drug take-back day, sponsored nationally by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, has helped keep prescription drugs off the street, Pohlmann
said, which is important because studies show young people often first abuse
prescription drugs after stealing them from medicine chests at the homes of
relatives or parents of friends.

Warren Rivera, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans field
office of the DEA, dropped by the Chalmette take-back event.

The Sheriff's Office has participated for several years in the national drug
take-back day and locally it was the Sheriff's Office that began its own
take-back day in 2009 called "Operation Medicine Cabinet,'' which encouraged
residents to clean out their medicine cabinets of old prescription drugs and
turn them in to the department.

St. Bernard residents are reminded they should call the sheriff's 271-DOPE
hot line (271-3673) any time to turn in prescription drugs between official
drug take-back days. A Narcotics Unit agent will call them back to make
arrangements.

Also, residents should call the same number to anonymously report any
suspected illegal drug activity. All calls will be acted upon.

The information in this article and pictures were provided by the St.
Bernard Sheriff's Office Director of Public Information Steve Cannizaro.




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