Assemblyman Kevin Byrne (R,C,I,SAM,ROS-Mahopac) is pleased to announce the success of his annual Shed the Meds event in Yorktown on Friday, Sept. 24 in Jefferson Village. Byrne was joined by local partners, including Drug Crisis in Our Backyard, Alliance for Safe Kids, the Yorktown Police Department and Yorktown Town Board. Over 200 pounds of unwanted and expired medications were collected to be safely disposed of by the Yorktown Police Department.
“I want to thank all our great community sponsors. Yorktown is an amazing community with so many people and organizations who make this event a success every year,” said Byrne. “We started this program years ago with former state Sen. Terrence Murphy, and I’ve been fortunate to continue the program since. In that time we have collected over 3,000 pounds of expired or unused prescription drugs; removing them from our medicine cabinets, protecting our drinking water and ensuring they go a to a safe disposal unit like the one here today that is always available at the Yorktown Police Station.”
“Yorktown is lucky to have an advocate in Albany like Assemblyman Byrne,” said Matt Slater, Yorktown Supervisor. “I also want to thank Drug Crisis in our Backyard and the Alliance for Safe Kids because it’s really important we’re educating the children of our community about substance use, mental health disorders and all the causes that lead people to rely on opioids.”
“I’m grateful to Assemblyman Byrne for continuing this Shed the Meds effort because it brings awareness to the community,” said Liz Talbert, Executive Director for Alliance for Safe Kids. “Sometimes when you talk about the opioid epidemic the average community member may wonder what they can do help, and this is it. Statistics have shown that the first place our youth are experimenting with drugs is at home, a friend’s house, or relative’s house where the medicine cabinet is located because of forgotten prescription drugs.”
“Thanks to all our partners for taking a great stand to get these drugs out of medicine cabinets,” said Tom Diana, Yorktown Deputy Supervisor. “Most people don’t realize that often times they may have things still in their medicine cabinet that their children or children’s friends can acquire.”
“I have done a lot of work with our partners over the years and can’t say enough about the great job they all do,” said Ed Lachterman, Yorktown Councilman.
Since he was elected, Byrne has supported and held numerous Shed the Meds events throughout Putnam & Westchester counties. He has also successfully advocated for stronger state policies like eliminating required pre-authorization for Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), passage of the “Drug Take Back Act” (Chap. 120 of 2018) and the creation of a new,special opioid settlement fund to ensure settlement money is properly appropriated for treatment (A.6395-B, Chap.190, 2021). He also continues to push for support for drug treatment courts, increasing the number of days covered for in-patient and out-patient substance use disorder treatment (A.902) and increasing penalties on profit-making drug traffickers whose sales lead to the death of people suffering from addiction (A.6314).
The Yorktown Police Department prescription drug disposal unit is open 24/7 in the lobby of police headquarters at 2281 Crompond Road, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598.
The above information was previously distributed and made public for immediate release by the Office of Assemblyman Kevin Byrne