Governor Christie: Disposing Of Unused Prescriptions Is An Important Public Safety Measure.
Governor Christie: I first want to thank John for the introduction and thank Walgreens. You know their unveiling of this safe medication disposal kiosk both here and at 16 other locations across New Jersey, it’s difficult to tell you how important this is. You know a lot of times folks get medications for absolutely appropriate purposes and sometimes don’t use all of them, and as John said, don’t use all of them. And especially when we’re considering opioids, those sit around the house and that is a ticking time bomb inside each and every person’s house. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard fallen to heroin addiction, starting with prescription opioids that they took either at a doctor’s instruction or that they obtained in other more nefarious ways. And one of those ways is both through the use inside a family of opioids that are left unused or breaking and entering homes to steal those items for folks who have reason to believe they’re in there. The ability for people to be able to safely, not hurting our environment, dispose of those drugs are an important public safety measure.