Oceanside School District holds Operation Medicine Cabinet

Pictured here at the Operation Medicine Cabinet drug collection are, from left, Jeff Risener, director of physical education, health and interscholastic athletics; Marylee Scharfberg, PTA representative; Board of Education Trustee Sandie Schoell; Nassau County Police Department Community Affairs Detective Pamela Stark; Board of Education Trustee-elect Seth Blau; Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Robert Fenter; and Ava Blau.

Alex Costello/Herald

Late last month, the Oceanside School District held its third annual Operation Medicine Cabinet.

Operation Medicine Cabinet is an initiative in which residents can drop off their unused medications with the school and they will be properly disposed off. Medications should not be flushed down the drain (where they get into the water supply) or left in your medicine cabinet for too long, where children and teenagers may find them and take them.

In the United States, there are 90 deaths a day from drug overdoses. Born from the district’s Drug Advisory Awareness Council, in its first year, Operation Medicine Cabinet collected more than 10,000 pills. Last year, it collected 30,000.

Though the exact number has yet to be determined, this year’s Operation Medicine Cabinet collected three extra-large garbage bag’s worth of unused prescription and over-the-counter medications.