Ditch Old Drugs Saturday at Westgate Mall, Giant Stores

The sixth National Take Back Day drug collection will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at locations across the Lehigh Valley including:

• Westgate Mall, main entrance, 2285 Schoenersville Road, Bethlehem
• Fountain Hill Police Department, 941 Long St., Fountain Hill
• Target, 912 Airport Center Road, Airport Shopping Plaza, Hanover Township

Local Giant food stores are participating including Bethlehem-area stores on:

• West Union Boulevard
• Linden Street
• Easton Avenue

You can dispose of capsules, pills, including pet medications, and liquids. Syringes or Sharps will not be accepted.

Residents who dispose of medications will remain anonymous, as has been the case in the last five collections, and no questions will be asked.

The amount of unwanted and expired drugs collected during the past Take Back Day events has been staggering.  During the last five collection events in 2010, 2011 and 2012, a total of 3,269 pounds of drugs were collected in Lehigh County alone.

The event helps keep drugs from getting into the hands of children who want to experiment with them or end up in landfills or in the area’s water supply, said Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin.

DEA personnel take the drugs to an incinerator where they are burned.

Many people don't know that most of the commonly abused drugs by teenagers are prescription drugs, Martin said. They are usually in the family’s bathroom medicine cabinets, where they are forgotten. Because they are not being used by the people for whom they were prescribed, no one checks to see if one pill or 10 pills are missing, Martin said.

He noted that studies have shown that one in 10 teenagers has used Vicodin for nonmedical purposes. Other drugs that are misused and abused are Percocet, Oxycontin and codeine cough syrup, stimulants like Adderall, Ritalin and Dexedrine, and sedatives and tranquilizers like Valium, Xanax and Ambien.

The event is being coordinated by the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, area police departments, the Allentown Health Bureau, Pennsylvania State Police and the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration.