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Briarcliff Joins Prescription Drug Take-Back Movement

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. – The Village of Briarcliff Manor recently installed Westchester County’s second prescription-drug take-back bin.

The Village of Briarcliff Manor Police Department recently installed a prescription-drug take-back box in the police facility.

The Village of Briarcliff Manor Police Department recently installed a prescription-drug take-back box in the police facility.

Photo Credit: Nathan Bruttell

The Village of Ossining installed a prescription-drug take-back bin in the Ossining police facility last year, and the Briarcliff Manor Police Department is now doing the same. Ossining pharmacists collected roughly $60,000 in prescription drugs from a semi-annual prescription-drug take-back program.

Briarcliff Manor Police Chief Norman Campion said he is hoping the village sees similar results with the new bin at the police facility, at 1111 Pleasantville Road.

“We all thought this was a good idea and certainly something that’s very important,” Campion said. “We know that prescription-drug abuse in the county is on the rise, and this is a way that parents and community members can safely dispose of drugs they’re not using.”

Campion said he doesn’t see prescription-drug abuse becoming a growing problem in the village of Briarcliff Manor, but thought it was important to reduce the possibility, regardless.

“We have, from time to time, arrested people who do have pills on them that were prescription medications that we didn’t believe were prescribed to them," he said. "And we’ve had a couple of cases that came in front of courts in the last year, so it was definitely something of concern to us,” he said.

“People only need to come to the police station door" to use the bin, he said. "It’s totally anonymous. Just open the bin, throw in the prescription drugs, and we’ll dispose of it properly from there.”

Lt. Jim Montegue of the Village of Ossining Police Department, said previously the effort is one of the most important things residents can do to keep drugs off the streets.

“We want to safeguard our kids from drugs that folks tend to forget about,” Montegue said in September. “People get prescriptions all the time, and often, don’t finish them. They end up in the back of the cabinet, and it becomes a danger to anyone who might go into that cabinet. What we’re trying to do is collect these things and dispose of them properly.”

 

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