Pawling Residents Respond To Appalling Opioid Crisis Through Murphy's Shed The Meds Program

Pawling, NY - Overdoses have replaced suicide as the number one cause of death in America for people under 50 years old. Another sobering fact: four out of five new heroin users started out by misusing prescription painkillers. It seems that even keeping prescription medicines under lock and key has not deterred the rise of opioid overdoses.
 
From the moment he entered office in 2014, Senator Terrence Murphy has been in the forefront of the battle to eliminate opioid abuse. In conjunction with the Town of Pawling, the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, and the Council on Addiction and Prevention, Senator Murphy brought his Shed the Meds Prescription Drug Drop-Off Program to the Pawling Town Hall on August 30. The program has been successful in many communities throughout the 40th Senate District, taking more than 5,000 pounds of potentially dangerous drugs out of people's medicine cabinets.
 
"You would think that because we live in such an affluent area that prescription drug abuse wouldn't exist at all," said Senator Murphy. "But addiction doesn't care if you're rich or poor, and it doesn't discriminate. We can help take control of the drug epidemic by removing drugs that could wind up in the hands of dealers or accidentally ingested by a child. The prescription drugs we collect at Shed the Meds are all safely destroyed by law enforcement. It's a program that's helping to save lives."Pawling Town Supervisor James Schmitt stated, "We had a great turnout for Shed the Meds. Residents in Pawling are well informed. They know the dangers involved with keeping powerful opioids in their home. We also have some beautiful lakes here. We don't want people ruining our lakes or our drinking water by disposing their drugs improperly. Having a Shed the Meds event here reinforced our determination to keep our waterways clean."
 
The next and final summer Shed the Meds will be held at the Brewster Fire Department, 1657 Main Street, on Thursday, September 11 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. For more information, contact Senator Murphy's District Office at 914-962-2624.