Students Spur Legislation To Keep Drugs Out Of Waterways
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) -- Whether you use prescription drugs properly or abuse them, a group of students is emphasizing that landfills and waterways are no place for the unused pills.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Dave Dahl reports, Paul Ritter, a science teacher at Pontiac High School downstate, told a state House committee that his students originally developed the P2D2 Program. P2D2 is short for "Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal."
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"These are students who have put their hard work and effort and the blood, sweat and tears," Ritter said. "You'll also notice there's a piece in there called the medicine chest. The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant thought so much of these kids that they took their curriculum and presented it, and published it."
Students from Antioch Community High School were also involved in creating the program.
HB 2506 would allow law enforcement personnel to collect prescription drugs from residential sources and burn them. It has already passed out of a state House Environmental Affairs Committee and is now going before the full state House.
It is meant as an alternative to flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet, thus contaminating waterways and marine life.
