Prescription Drugs Polluting Water Supply

alt TOCCOA - [watch] Do you have a house full of old prescription drugs and plan to flush them down the toilet? Well DON'T! A nationwide program is getting the word out to local communities. They're asking them to educate residents that it's important to keep these drugs out of our water supply... and prevent drug abuse.

Northeast Georgia's water supply is at risk of contamination. Too many prescription pills and drugs are polluting more and more local waters.

"North Georgia has all of these fresh water systems in the mountains and it's so beautiful. But our waters are getting so polluted with all of these excess drugs that are getting flushed into the system and from our landfills."

Chuck Lewis with the Stephens County Anti-Drug Coalition says protecting the water supply and helping prevent misuse and abuse of these drugs is important. It's so important that the anti-drug group has joined forces with a national campaign called P2D2 or "The Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program."

High school teacher Paul Ritter started the program in Illinois. "We're gonna clean up the water systems. We're gonna clean up the streets of these prescription drugs. And there's going to be an advantage of recycling some of these. We can redistribute some of these drugs to free clinics," Lewis explains.

The program has distributed several drop-boxes like the one you see here to police offices and pharmacies in neighborhoods. The boxes are supposed to be a convenient and more eco-friendly way of disposing drugs. "We need everyone's support. All civic leaders need to be involved."

So far, those involved around the nation have been able to get more than 95,000 pounds of presription pills and drugs disposed using the P2D2 system.

For more information on this program, visit http://www.p2d2program.org/index_return.html

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Prescription Drugs Polluting Water Supply