Bring a bit of spring cleaning to your medicine cabinet and safely dispose of pharmaceuticals all at the same time.

The Great Peconic Take Back II is a free initiative offered on Wednesday at 13 independent pharmacies on the East End for residents to properly get rid of unwanted, unused, and expired prescription and over-the-counter medications.  

In East Hampton, White’s Pharmacy and Park Place Chemists are participating.

Robert E. Grisnik of Southrifty Drug in Southampton organized the event for the Peconic Independent Pharmacy Association, which in its first installment yielded almost half a ton of medications. He said the benefits of the program are two fold.

“Taking drugs out of people’s homes helps a lot of things. It helps the environment and it helps families getting old, expired drugs off the shelves. Teenagers often experiment with the use of painkillers and tranquilizers. It’s the second most abused drug other than marijuana with teenagers,” he said.

Improper disposal of pharmaceuticals wreaks havoc on the environment and poses a risk to the safety of humans and wildlife, particularly fish. They can contaminate the ground water if flushed or once they reach a landfill, according to the Group for the East End, which supports and helps promote the pharmacies’ endeavor.

“For years people were told to flush it,” said Jeremy Samuelson, an environmental advocate with the Group. “Proper disposal of prescription drugs keeps the potentially harmful compounds from building up in our drinking water supply,” Samuelson said, adding that home filters don’t eliminate prescription compounds.

“Sadly when we dispose of these things in the wrong way, they never truly leave our aquifer where all of our water comes from. This means every time we turn on the tap, we are re-exposed to these chemicals that should be tightly managed via prescriptions and expert medical advise,” he said.

A recent study by the US Geological Survey concluded that 80 percent of streams sampled contained detectable levels of compounds found in common medications.

Grisnik said he was moved to do his part as a pharmacist to make sure families could more easily dispose of leftover medication after a child in a close friend’s family became addicted to painkillers that was found in his parent’s medicine cabinet.

“It hits home when something like that happens,” he said. “I’m dispensing all these drugs and if people don’t take them like they should – sometimes people don’t take all the antibiotics like they should when they start to feel better – they should get rid of them properly.”

Last April, Grisnik held a “take back” day at his pharmacy, which he’s owned since 1972, in coordination with the National Community Pharmacy Association. He took in over 1,144 bottles of medicine, including one bottle from his pharmacy dating back to the year it opened and an over-the-counter medication that expired in 1952.

Other independent pharmacies have since asked to join in, and the group banded together to form the Peconic Independent Pharmacy Association. They held their first “take back” event in the fall. They took in about ten 100-gallon tip carts.

Emil Norsic and Sons of Southampton is donating the carts for Wednesday’s event.

The pharmaceuticals, ranging from Valium to expired dosages of NyQuil, are properly incinerated at an approved facility, Grisnik said.

Medications should be dropped off in their original, labeled containers and the patient’s name should be crossed out with a permanent black marker and it doesn’t matter if they were purchased at the pharmacy they are being turned into.  

The pharmacies work with their local police departments because in New York State they are not allowed to take back and dispose of controlled substances without police assistance, he said.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker said the pharmacies are offering the residents a service. “This gives them an opportunity to get rid of whatever they have in a safe manner.”

The department is also hosting the Drug Enforcement Administration later this month in the same endeavor. Pharmaceuticals can be dropped off at the Wainscott, East Hampton, and Montauk precincts on April 30 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Samuelson said that the Group is working with Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, I-Montauk, to get money from a county grant so that East End police agencies can install a locked drop-box for unused or expired prescription drugs, such as the ones found in county police stations in western Suffolk.