The box will be located inside the North Elba Town Hall, close to the back entrance and beneath the stairs that lead to the lower level. The box will be emptied regularly by the police department, according to Lake Placid Police Chief William Moore.

Many police departments have drug drop-off boxes. There’s a drug drop-off box at the New York State Police Troop B headquarters in Ray Brook and at the Saranac Lake Police Department. The state Department of Health has a permanent drug drop box program. In many cases, prescription drugs that are abused are obtained from the medicine cabinets of family members and friends, according to the DOH, which called prescription drug abuse a “major public health problem.”

Moore said the police department has participated in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Drug Take Back Day in the past, and this box is just piggybacking off of that.