Westmoreland Co. police departments collect 1,700 pounds of prescription pills for incineration

Jul. 27—Unloading dozens of cardboard boxes filled with old prescription pills collected from municipal police stations countywide, Chief Robert Stafford lamented Greensburg's box "will be filled again in 10 days."

The county district attorney office's drop-off prescription box program in police stations has become so ingrained in the communities over the last nine years, the Greensburg box now has to be emptied every week and a half, Stafford said. He and Capt. Shawn Denning handled the duty Tuesday.

In addition to Greensburg, 18 other police departments across the county on Tuesday transported prescription pill collections gathered over the past few months to the county public works department along Don0hoe Road in Hempfield. In all, about 25 police departments countywide participate in the program.

County Det. Tony Marcocci said arrangements are made with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard Unit for the boxes to be loaded into a truck and counted by a convoy of soldiers and police. The boxes are then incinerated at an undisclosed location. Agents from state attorney general's office chaperone the truck to the incineration site.

The box truck carried 1,700 pounds of medications collected since April, when about 400 pounds of old pills were collected and destroyed.

Even during last year's covid-19 pandemic, the county had about a ton of prescription pills collected and destroyed. The prescriptions are dropped off about four times a year, Marcocci said.

"I believe, back in 2013, we received a grant from the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association to purchase these drop-off boxes and place them in police stations," said District Attorney John Peck.

"The important thing is, these drug drop-off boxes are in secure locations that are under 24 hour watch," Peck said.

The county's drug overdose task force director Tim Phillips emphasized that he's glad the boxes are secure and located in all four corners of the county.

"It's certainly been a great resource to get drugs off the street," Phillips said.

Some of the old pill deliveries by individual departments Tuesday included Allegheny Township police, who delivered four boxes containing 80 pounds of prescription pills; Lower Burrell with three boxes containing 60 pounds; Murrysville with three boxes containing 82 pounds; New Kensington with three boxes containing 60 pounds; Upper Burrell with one box containing eight pounds; Vandergrift with one box containing 10 pounds and Washington Township with three boxes containing 41 pounds.

Peck recalled the amount of pills dropped off in the county always has been impressive.

"I remember the first year we put the boxes out, Westmoreland County collected more than any county in the state ... even Philadelphia and Allegheny counties," Peck said.

Latrobe police Chief John Sleasman, who dropped off multiple boxes collected in that city's police station and Ligonier Borough, said, up until five years ago, the drugs used to be burned in the furnaces at Latrobe Steel Co.

Stafford said he and Denning dropped off 40 full boxes of prescription from Greensburg to be destroyed.

"It's great to have a secure place to get old prescriptions pills off our streets," Stafford added.

Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-850-2860, ppeirce@triblive.com or via Twitter .