Seniors' Painkillers Wind up as Street Drugs


Popular pharmacological teen drugs - painkillers - OxyContins, Dilaudids, Percocets - show up on drug raids across North America.

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI) follows this trend. Recently, the city's police force has found residential Assisted Living and Continuing Care medications being stolen.

The police have launched a program with a local pharmacy to curb these thefts.

Deputy Police Chief Gary McGuigan told cbcnews|Prince Edward Island: "The drugs are ending up in our community or out on the streets." He added: "They're either using them to feed their own addictions or they are selling them illegally to other people."

Jeannine McQuaid, director of pharmacy operations at Murphy's Pharmacies, told CBC about the dangers of expired medications. She warned that seniors need to turn them in, to avoid vulnerability from break-ins from someone looking for narcotics.

The strategy is to remove expired medications and safeguarding painkillers that teenagers and family members use and sell.

Officer McGuigan said the police force will dispatch uniformed police officers to collect old and unused medication.

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