The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office announces results of this year’s Operation Take Back that took place over the weekend.
This was the second Operation Take Back of the year, the first one occurring in April.
The event which took place on Saturday, Oct. 27th, was coordinated and run smoothly with the help of Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of Investigations Stephen F. Wilson Jr., Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon, Morris Township Chief of Police Mark DiCarlo, Randolph Township Chief of Police David Stokoe, Morris Plains Borough Chief of Police Jason A. Kohn, and Hanover Township Chief of Police Mark D. Roddy
The Morris County community was encouraged to bring unused or expired prescription medicine to three designated locations from 10 am through 2 pm. The three drop-off locations were the Shoprite of Greater Morristown in East Hanover, the ACME Supermarket in Randolph, and the Stop and Shop Supermarket in Morris Plains. The drugs collected at these sites were weighed and will be destroyed by law enforcement officials in an environmentally safe manner.
The total weight in drugs collected from each location are as follows:
Shoprite of Greater Morristown: 118 pounds.
Stop and Shop of Morris Plains: 135 pounds.
ACME of Randolph: 140 pounds.
Total: 393 pounds.
Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp stated, “Despite the harsh weather conditions, the people of Morris County still came out supported this great initiative. The nearly 400 pounds of expired or unused prescription drugs collected on Saturday plays a large role in preventing our citizens from becoming inadvertent drug dealers through their medicine cabinets. Thanks are in order to all of our law enforcement and community partners. Without them, we would not have been able to run such a successful program.”
The community is reminded that permanent drop box locations can be found at http://safehealthymorris.org/dropbox/ if they were not able to attend this event.
Photo Caption: From left: MCPO Det. Thomas Spautz, MCPO Det. Aaron King, Prosecutor Knapp, Hanover Township Ptl. Michael Byrnes, Morris Township Ptl. Nicholas Gonzales, and Morris Township Ptl. Kyle Laauwe