Properly discarding unwanted, expired or unused medications has just become a lot easier for residents of Sag Harbor and other local communities due to a generous contribution from pharmacist Jeff Yohai and Southampton Hospital. Robert Chaloner, Southampton Hospital President and CEO, recently announced that a Southampton Hospital sponsorship has resulted in a pharmaceutical collection receptacle at Sag Harbor Pharmacy (120 Main Street, Sag Harbor).
"Southampton Hospital is proud to sponsor the Big Red Med Box at Sag Harbor Pharmacy to enable responsible disposal of unwanted medications," noted Mr. Chaloner. "Water quality is a major concern for Long Island and we need to protect our drinking water from many kinds of potential contaminants, including unwanted medications that might otherwise be flushed into our groundwater."
The Big Red Med Disposal Box at the Sag Harbor Pharmacy meets the Drug Enforcement Administration's regulations to implement the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010.
"The key to a successful program is making medication disposal free, confidential and, most importantly, convenient," shared Thomas McAbee, Executive Director of the Lloyd Magothy Water Trust, Inc., which provided the collection receptacle.
"Responsible disposal of unwanted medications helps keep old medications out of our drinking water and also prevents prescription drug abuse," explained Pharmacist Jeff Yohai, the new owner of Sag Harbor Pharmacy. "Having the Big Red Med Disposal Box here in Sag Harbor Pharmacy is a great benefit for our community. We need to do our best to keep old prescription medications out of the hands of small children who might accidentally ingest them, and out of the hands of any teens who might seek to use medications for non-medical use."
By spearheading the Sag Harbor Big Red Med Disposal Box, Jeff Yohai and Robert Chaloner hope that their collaboration in support of responsible medication disposal will inspire other pharmacies to sponsor disposal boxes, and help expand the program in other communities.
"Getting rid of unwanted medications that are unnecessarily stored in household medicine cabinets reduces the chance of prescription drug abuse," said Yohai. "For now, we will collect only non-controlled medications until the New York State Bureau of Narcotics updates their regulations."
Potential benefactors should contact Tom McAbee at tommcabee@gmail.com or 631-353-3435.