The Juneau Police Department will open its lobby doors Saturday to accept unwanted or expired pills and prescription medication.
Medication may be dropped off from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the drug drop box at JPD’s station lobby, 6255 Alaway Ave. The drug drop box is usually only open on weekdays during business hours.
With the start of the school year, Lt. Kris Sell said it’s a “good time to examine what drugs are in your home.”
“JPD finds that prescription drugs are sometimes brought from home to school by students and shared,” Sell wrote in a news release Tuesday.
Police installed the drug drop box last year to ensure Juneau residents had a proper way to dispose of prescription medications, reducing the risk of the drugs falling into the wrong hands and fueling drug addiction.
“This is a good opportunity to get unwanted drugs, especially narcotics, out of your home so that the drugs are not diverted to people who might abuse them,” Sell’s release states. “There is a strong correlation between prescription drug abuse and the abuse of street drugs.”
Flushing prescription medications down the toilet is no longer an accepted method of disposing of medication. It’s bad for the environment and water quality, and the chemicals are discharged into local streams and rivers.
Liquids, needles and gels are not accepted at the JPD drop box.
