There’s a drug dealer living in practically every Hoboken home and the Hoboken Police Department and the Hoboken Municipal Alliance Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse have teamed up to capture that dealer on Saturday, Nov. 14 between the hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The dealers are actually the medicine cabinets in Hoboken homes which harbor no longer used or expired prescription drugs. This initiative is available for all Hoboken residents to properly dispose of their unused, unwanted and expired medicine. Operation Medicine Cabinet is a statewide initiative that is the first of its kind in the nation, and over 250 local police departments have signed on.
The operation is being sponsored by the New Jersey Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headed by Special Agent Gerard P. McAleer, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Hoboken native Angelo M. Valente, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ).
Hoboken Police Chief Anthony Falco, Sr., was one of the first chiefs in the state to sign on to the program. Both he and McAleer pointed out that law enforcement is concerned with the alarming trend in the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs, with potential access to these drugs coming from the medicine cabinets of families and friends.
Abuse often starts at home
According to Valente and Hoboken Police Captain Anthony Romano, Chairman of the Hoboken Municipal Alliance Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (HMAAADA), the findings of a 2007 National Study of Drug Use and Health reveal that 70 per cent of people who abuse prescription drugs and pain relievers say they got them from friends or relatives.
The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that upwards of 9 million people use prescription medicine for non-medical uses. They noted that the 2007 Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey Principals Survey found that half of the principals surveyed said that prescription drugs are abused more than twice that of ecstasy and cocaine by New Jersey middle school students.
Hoboken Police Captain Daniel Simone, committee chairman for the alliance’s participation, states that “it is equally disturbing the 47 per cent of New Jersey parents of middle school students said they know little or just about nothing about prescription drug abuse, according to a 2009 PDFNJ Parents Tracking Survey.”
The collection sites on Saturday, Nov. 14 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for any Hoboken resident are: Police Headquarters, 106 Hudson St.; Ambulance Corps, 715 Clinton St.; Marion Gardens, 400 First St.; Fox Hill Gardens, 311 13th St.; and Andrew Jackson Gardens, 221 Jackson St.
Drugs and medicines should only be turned over to the police person on duty. The Hoboken Police Department will then dispose of all submissions in accordance with the DEA instructions.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who along with the Municipal Council is also sponsoring the operation, urges all Hoboken residents, as well as senior citizens, to participate in the drive to rid medicine cabinets of unwanted and unused prescriptions
“Youngsters and teenagers all over America are getting high on prescription drugs made available in their homes and by friends and relatives,” she said, “and the problem is growing every day, both nationally and here in Hoboken. We must do all we can to protect our children from this growing menace.”