Yorktown News–
As prescription drug abuse sweeps the nation, proactive citizens of Yorktown are collaborating to keep our neighborhood a safe and healthy place. What started as a simple discussion about potential Girl Scout final projects, the prescription drug box at the Yorktown Police Department has become a simple solution for a rapidly-growing problem.
The Alliance for Safe Kids (ASK) is a non-profit organization focused on preventing destructive behaviors in youth through education and community-oriented programs. One of the behaviors ASK recently aimed to avert was prescription drug abuse, which reportedly causes a death every 19 minutes in the United States. Young adults are especially susceptible to this addiction according the Lisa Tomeny, Executive Director of the Alliance for Safe Kids. “Kids think that because these drugs come from a doctor, they’re safe,” Tomeny said. “There are no needles or need for smoking like traditional illegal drugs, so more people will try these drugs and believe them to be safe.”
Samantha Greene, a long time Girl Scout and participant in the ASK youth court, first became aware of this “epidemic” as classified by the Department of Health, through media reports or deaths and injuries across the nation. “The reason I chose this project was because I noticed the increasing number of teen deaths due to prescription drug abuse in the news and I wondered why there wasn’t much advocacy for it,” Greene said. “I knew this was an issue that needed to be brought to attention to the community and this project sounded like the perfect way to do it.” Naturally, when she heard about an ASK project relating to these dangerous drugs that required assistance, Greene was the first to sign up.
The Alliance for Safe Kids planned to install a box in the police department for locals to anonymously drop off their unused or expired prescription drugs at any time, to be disposed of safely. Without this drop off box, residents would only be able to dispose of their drugs on the infrequent national or county take back days. Greene not only worked on the project and saw it to its completion, but she also made prescription drug abuse awareness and prevention the focus of her Gold Award project.
Yorktown Police Lt. Richard Malan says the box serves an important function for residents. “The main focus is to keep dangerous substances out of the hands of children in our community and out of the waterways when disposed of improperly, such as flushing them down the toilet,” Malan said. He added that the drugs are ultimately burned, as there is no safer way to dispose of them.
Though the drop off box is now operational at the Yorktown Police Department, for Samantha Greene, the work has just started. Gold Award is the highest award a girl scout can achieve, and requires an 80 hour community service project that benefits the community. To fulfill this requirement, Greene plans on distributing educational flyers to residents providing important information on prescription drug abuse. She also plans on creating a sign to inform locals about the drop off box. Finally, she hopes to create a Public Service Announcement video to be shown in health classes, informing students about the dangers of prescription drug addiction. This peer-to-peer approach will ideally be more successful in reaching out to students and making them understand the risks involved with such substances. “I had heard about prescription drugs before, but I wondered why I hadn’t heard about the dangers of these drugs,” said Green.
Greene’s parents are glad their daughter chose a project that has a chance to impact to many. “Our whole family is so proud,” said Elizabeth Greene, Samantha’s mother. “We know this is a big undertaking, but we are confident Samantha will succeed and make the town a safer place.”