Police Collect Pounds of Pills At Drug Drop-Off

Expired over-the-counter medications and prescription pills piled up in three large boxes at the  on Saturday.

About 40 people stopped by between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to participate in the , a one-day program organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to properly dispose of the substances and to prevent abuse or misuse.

Northbrook resident Dexter Congbalay, who said he was on a "honey-do" mission, brought in expired prescriptions that had been sitting in the house for two to four years.

“A couple of them were narcotics and you can’t flush that stuff into the water system,” he said. “Having young children, that’s a big reason why I just want that stuff out of the house.”

Northbrook police will transport the collected drugs to a DEA site for safe disposal, said Marty Quill, a community service officer for the department. 

“A lot of people had been bringing in medications from their family members who had passed away,” Quill said. “Even vitamins, if they’re ingested in great quantities, they can be harmful.”

While Saturday was a special, publicized day, the department has a tan-colored mailbox-like receptacle inside its front door where people can drop off their medications and supplements any time of the day during the week.

According to Quill, the department will accept any medication--over-the-counter and prescription--as well as nutritional supplements and vitamins that have expired or are no longer needed.

However, liquid medicines and things like nasal sprays, syringes, needles and even epinephrine pins cannot be discarded at the police department because they can leak or because of the risk of being stuck by a needle, he said. Special arrangements must be made for those.

As for illegal drugs?

“We really don’t look in the bottles,” said Community Service Officer Dan Petka. “It’s kind of an invasion of privacy.”

Protecting the water supply

Just minutes after officers closed up the special table and boxes at 2 p.m., two more individuals walked in.

Ann Dillon of Northbrook arrived just a few minutes too late and had to put her unwanted medications, including Vicodin, in the 24-hour receptacle.

“For 13 years I’ve been hanging on to it because I didn’t know what to do with it,” said Dillon of the liquid morphine, which she had been storing in her freezer for years after her husband had used it for an illness.

Dillon also had some liquid medications, but the dispatcher advised her that they would have to be disposed of elsewhere.

That's when the police department's other late visitor, Jim Shah, spoke up: “I work for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, and if I may, I am authorized to collect such things and promise to properly dispose of them through our office.”

“After all, it is our job to protect the water supply,” said the Northbrook resident.

He showed identification—he’s a senior civil engineer for the water district—and an officer advised the two that they could handle their business between themselves. Dillon handed over a few small bottles of liquid. 

“I know so many people who just dump this stuff down the drain. I didn’t know how bad it is,” she said. “I only knew that it does harm when you dump it into the water.” 

“We thank you because you make our water system work right,” Shah told Dillon. "You may think it is a minor thing, but every bit helps.”