Drug drop-off popular in Huntley
Luanne Lukaszewski of Huntley entered the police station Saturday with between 25 and 30 bottles of pills she planned on getting rid of the right way - by turning them over to police.
She said she wouldn't dream of throwing the pills away or of flushing them down the toilet.
"You don't know what it's doing to the water or to the landfill," she explained.
As part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's program "National Take-Back Initiative," McHenry County residents were encouraged to drop old, unused and unwanted pills off at their police stations for free. A similar collection took place in Algonquin.
The one-day event ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The police will turn the drugs over to the DEA, which will dispose of them, said Huntley Deputy Police Chief Todd Fulton.
The pills came in all sizes and shapes. There were green ones, white ones, blue ones, round ones, oval ones, big ones and small ones.
Some were medications for high blood pressure, others were to maintain cholesterol, some were vitamins and still others were intended to relieve back pain.
The drug drop-off proved particularly popular in Huntley, police said, noting that they had enough pills to fill up six large boxes.
"People don't know what to do with them so they save them for years," explained Huntley Officer Cory Coss, one of three officers who helped supervise Saturday's collection.
Initially, police accepted prescription bottles but when they started taking up too much space, police collected the drugs only, then asked residents to recycle the bottles.
Lukaszewski didn't have to be told twice.
"I recycle everything, I don't throw stuff away," she said. "We did it during the war."