Carteret's ‘Pills Can Kill' collection successful

Residents are credited with making Carteret County's second "Pills Can Kill" prescription medication collection campaign as successful as the first.In a four-hour time period on the day of the event, residents turned in more than 32,800 pills/dosage units of prescription medications that had expired or that they no longer needed. "

The citizens of the county truly deserve the credit for making this program a success," said Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck. "We placed ourselves at collection points but the citizens are the ones who have to examine what medicines they have and make a deter-mination to get rid of them and bring them to us.

This is the second turn-in event we have had and the citizens came through again in a big way."On May 2, officers from participating agencies were located at Food Lion stores throughout the county for the campaign, which allowed individuals to voluntarily and anonymously turn over medications to law enforcement for proper disposal.

The first "Pills Can Kill" prescription medication collection was held in September 2008, at which time more than 40,000 dosage units of various medications was collected.The medications collected have included powerful and highly addictive painkillers.Buck thanked the Food Lion Corp. for partnering with local law enforcement and allowing them to use the store sites for the collection.Stores are located county-wide, making the program easily accessible to residents in all areas of the county.

"Having a standard location throughout the county makes if more convenient for the citizens to participate," Buck said.Participating agencies were the Carteret County Sheriff's Office; police departments from Beaufort, Morehead City, Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach, Emerald Isle and Cape Carteret; Healthy Carolinians and the Substance Abuse Task Force; and Food Lion Corp.Buck said the event is an example of community cooperation.

"These events truly show what we can do to better our community when we all work together," he said.Medications can still be dropped off at the sheriff's office in Beaufort or one of the police departments in the county throughout the year. All medications collected are disposed of at a Drug Enforcement Administration-approved incinerator.