Turning in prescription drugs at 'take-back' day

Residents around Long Island got rid of medications Saturday that included antibiotics and morphine during a Drug Enforcement Administration-sponsored prescription drug take-back day targeting addiction among young people.

Officials at sites across Long Island collected prescription drugs, no questions asked.

"If we can prevent one person from overdosing . . . or keep drugs out of our environment . . . that is good for the public," said Wilbert Plummer, a DEA associate special agent.

At a news conference at the Suffolk police department's Second Precinct in Huntington, Edward Balzer said his son became addicted to Vicodin after he was hurt in a car accident several years ago. He overdosed on heroin last year at 22 and died.

"My son's problem started with prescription drugs and snowballed," said Balzer, of Mastic Beach. "It was the gateway to where he is now."

DEA officials say the number of teens and young adults using heroin and abusing prescription drugs continues to rise. Plummer said people often become addicted to pills, then move on to heroin, which is cheaper.

Annette Vita, 50, turned in dozens of pills at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore. The Bayport woman said drugs from her battle with cancer included antibiotics and sleeping pills. "They were sitting around my house and I didn't know what to do with them," she said.

Freeport resident Jacquelin Jager went to a police station with her medicine and her neighbors' drugs: "Some of them are from the 1990s and from my other address. I know you weren't supposed to drop them down the toilet."

At the Elmont police station, West Hempstead resident Susan Eckstein handed in about 15 types of cancer-fighting and organ transplant drugs estimated at $20,000. "My husband just died," she said. "I just couldn't look at them anymore."

With Ellen Yan